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Dodi al Fayed, the rakish Egyptian-born heir to the
billion-dollar Harrods fortune, seemed an unlikely consort for
Britain's fairy princess. An unreconstructed playboy, his taste
in books seemed to run mainly to a little black one that once
contained names such as Brooke Shields and Tawny Kitaen. His
past was littered with women he had romanced and rejected, as
well as with creditors still hoping to be paid for meals
consumed and lodging used long ago. And then there was that
vexing question of his family's nationality. Romance novelist
Dame Barbara Cartland, Diana's stepgrandmother, spoke for
xenophobic Britons everywhere when she sniffed, "My only concern
is that this Dodi is a foreigner." A writer for London's Daily
Mail was cruder, warning Diana that by marrying into the clan of
Al Fayeds she would be "trading in one prison, the life-style of
the royal family," for something worse, "an Arab one."
But the dashing Dodi was royalty of a different sort. He was the
only son of Mohamed al Fayed and his late first wife Samira
Khashoggi, sister of Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. The
elder Al Fayed is a self-made billionaire whose wealth is
greater than the Queen's. His sprawling empire contains some
highly prized European properties. In addition to London's
fashionable Harrods department store, he owns the Ritz Hotel of
Paris, the British humor magazine Punch, the Fulham soccer club
and a $32 million, 190-ft. yacht. The senior Al Fayed also holds
a long-term lease on the Paris villa that the Duke and Duchess
of Windsor lived in after the duke abdicated the British throne
to marry a commoner. Al Fayed has spent $40 million restoring
the villa and its contents, although he announced that Sotheby's
auction house will be selling 40,000 items from it. Al Fayed's
brother owns the elite British clothier Turnbull and Asser.
The younger Al Fayed, who split his early years between
Alexandria and the French Riviera, was reared in a rarefied
world of international wealth. He attended Switzerland's tony Le
Rosey school and Britain's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst.
Dodi moved easily among his family's 11 homes, in locations as
far-flung as Manhattan, St.-Tropez and Gstaad. He had use of
family helicopters and his father's yacht. In recent years he
was one of the jet set's most renowned hosts, throwing parties
in Beverly Hills populated by such celebrities as Tony Curtis,
Farrah Fawcett and Robert Downey Jr. Guests say his hospitality
ran to the grandiose, including a recent gala in a private home
that featured a bowling alley, a band and movie showings in a
screening room. It was reported that he owned five Ferraris.
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DIANA AND DODI shared a quiet moment last month while sailing off the coast of
Italy
