The Al-Fayed family is introduced in The Crown season five

Season five of The Crown introduces the Al-Fayed family, formerly the Fayed family, to the royal saga.

In episode three, the family is questioned about their background when they put in a bid to purchase the Ritz in Paris.

Their brazen social climbing and association with the royal family placed the clan in the spotlight in season five.

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Mohamed Al-Fayed was born in Egypt when it was still part of the British Empire

Mohamed, who financed the family’s most notable acquisitions, was born in British-occupied Egypt sometime in the late 1920s or early 1930s. This made a strong impression on him as a child.

Mohamed has been quoted by Town and Country as saying he was born in 1933, which is listed as his birth year in the National Portrait Gallery. But a report from the British Department of Trade and Industry published in 1990 contradicted that and listed his birth year as 1929.

The fictionalised Mohamed worships the British as “Gods” in the series.

Mohamed’s connection to the prominent Saudi family, the Khashoggis

In his 20s, Mohamed worked for the prominent Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi, and he married Adnan’s sister Samira Khashoggi in 1954.

According to a 1997 Vanity Fair article by royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, Adnan employed Mohamed in his import-export business in the 1950s.

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Mohamed married Samira in 1954, and the couple divorced a few years later after the birth of their son, Dodi.

Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena’em Fayed, also known as Dodi, was born in 1955. He became a successful film producer with his father’s financial resources.

Mohamed moved to the United Kingdom in the mid-1970s and added the prefix “Al” to his surname.

The Al-Fayed family bought The Ritz Paris in 1979 and renovated it

In season five, episode three of The Crown, Mohamed and Dodi attend a meeting with representatives of The Ritz hotel in Paris, who are concerned about whether the funds behind their bid for the hotel are guaranteed.

Mohamed bought the hotel in real life in 1979 and subsequently completed a massive renovation to the historic property.

Mohamed acquired Harrods in 1984

Harrods, the famed department store significant to British culture, was bought by the Al-Fayed family in 1984. As Mohamed told The New York Times in 1985, “There is only one Harrods.”

Despite owning this landmark, CBS reported in 1998 that Mohamed was denied British citizenship because of discrepancies about the source of the funds he used to purchase the store.

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Mohamed married Finnish socialite-turned-model Heini Wathén in 1985

Mohamed and Wathén have four children together: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.

Mohamed reportedly felt snubbed by the British upper crust

Mohamed was an influential but controversial figure in Britain in the 90s and 00s, according to Town & Country, despite his attempts to reach the highest echelons of British society.

Many of the spaces he sought for his family, like seats at royal events, were occupied by people who had been courtiers for generations, and his family’s sudden arrival on the scene in the 1970s reportedly prevented them from gaining that level of access.

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Princess Diana befriended Mohamed and eventually formed relationships with other family members

In The Crown, Mohamed’s character befriends Princess Diana at the Harrods-sponsored Royal Windsor Horse Show. After he is snubbed by Queen Elizabeth (Imelda Staunton), Diana sits with Mohamed and he asks her to call him “Mou Mou”. The Crown depicts the pair sharing a sense of humour and compassionate nature.

Mohamed and Diana were often spotted enjoying one another’s company

Diana was Mohamed’s guest aboard his yacht in 1997 and brought Prince William and Prince Harry along for the holiday in Saint-Tropez, according to Town & Country. She was reportedly unbothered by the vagueness surrounding the Al-Fayed family’s background. Vanity Fair reported that Mohamed was also a friend of the late Earl Spencer.

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Mohamed’s son Dodi dated Princess Diana in 1997 for a few months. According to The Washington Post, Diana and Dodi reportedly began their romance aboard Mohamed’s yacht in 1997, and the two were soon discussing engagement.

Dodi was in the car with Princess Diana during the fatal crash inside a tunnel in Paris in 1997

Dodi was pronounced dead at the scene and Diana died a few hours later from injuries she sustained in the crash, The New York Times reported in 1997.

The two were leaving the Ritz Paris after dining there that evening in late August 1997, the AP reported. They were being pursued by paparazzi from the hotel to the car’s final location, the Alma Tunnel, where the crash occurred.

Mohamed said that Dodi and Diana’s deaths were the result of racism and murder

The crash led to several conspiracy theories, some of which included that the couple were murdered.

Mohamed submitted a videotaped statement requesting American intervention in the resulting investigations in 2001, ABC News reported.

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When the official findings were published by French authorities, he hired his own investigators and publicly appealed the reports, according to Vanity Fair.

Mohamed died in August

Mohamed died on August 30, 2023, The New York Times reported on September 1. His death occurred nearly 26 years to the day of his son Dodi’s death. He was 94 years old.

As reported by CNN, his family confirmed his death in a statement released by Fulham Football Club, which he’d bought in 1997.

Mohamed’s former spokesperson denied that he orchestrated Diana and Dodi’s romance

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After the premiere of The Crown season six part one on November 16, Michael Cole, Mohamed’s former press secretary, told Deadline that the show invented the idea that Mohamed had manipulated Dodi’s involvement with Diana.

“Netflix and the production company describe The Crown as ‘dramatised fiction’ and I am not going to disagree with that characterisation. That means it is made up,” Cole said, also calling the implication that Mohamed had engineered the relationship “total nonsense”.

Netflix didn’t respond to request for comment.