Before he was known as Princess Diana’s boyfriend at the time of her death. Diana and Dodi’s relationship was just beginning before the two died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
TV series, The Crown has caught up to his relationship with Diana but, as we know, the show is still fiction and does not depict the real-life events accurately.
Dodi Fayed was in the car with Princess Diana when they died in a fatal car crash.
(Credit: Getty)Who is Dodi Fayed?
Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena’em Fayed, known as Dodi Fayed, was a very successful Egyptian film producer and son to billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed who owned Harrods department store and the Hôtel Ritz in Paris.
Dodi was successful in his own right after producing an Oscar-winning movie, Chariots of Fire as well as working on movies Breaking Glass and The Scarlet Letter.
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Prior to Diana, Dodi was linked to many famous women including including Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder, and Daryl Hannah.
Was Dodi Fayed a billionaire?
Dodi was a billionaire, or at least came from a family of billionaires in Egypt.
It was suspected on top of his income, he received a monthly allowance of £400,000.
Kelly Fisher flashing her engagement ring that Dodi Fayed gave her.
(Credit: Getty)Was Dodi married before dating Princess Diana?
Like Diana, Dodi was divorced. Dodi was married to Suzanne Gregard in 1986 for less than a year.
In 1997, he got engaged to a model named Kelly Fisher but their relationship abruptly ended right before Dodi started dating Princess Diana.
When did Diana and Dodi meet?
Over the years Diana and Dodi’s father Mohammad had met numerous times throughout the years but most notably had both attended a charity event at Harrods in 1996.
However, it wasn’t until a polo match in 1986 in Windsor that Dodi and Dianna reportedly first met.
Diana spent the summer of 1997, in the south of France with Prince William and Prince Harry after Mohammed invited them to vacation with his family.
Prince Harry would later write about this trip in his memoir, Spare, “Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven.” He explained.
“We’d been with Mummy weeks earlier when she first met him, in St. Tropez” referring to Dodi and perhaps dismissing claims that they’d met prior.
“We were having a grand time, just the three of us, staying at some old gent’s villa.”
Despite Suzanne only having great things to say about Dodi during his relationship with Diana, his ex-fiancée did not have the same feelings.
Kelly sued Dodi after he left her for Diana and held a press conference where her lawyer read a statement stating that Dodi, “…led her emotionally all the way up to the altar and abandoned her when they were almost there. He threw her love away in a callous way with no regard for her whatsoever.”
Did Mohammod set up Diana and Dodi?
As we’ve now seen in The Crown, they portrayed that Mohammed set the two up, although this is not confirmed, Royal historian, Sally Bedell Smith told Vanity Fair a similar story,
“Mohamed Al Fayed engineered the romance with Dodi and Dodi basically did whatever his father told him to do.”
“He was engaged, left his fiancée, and went over to his father’s boat. That’s when the romance began.”
“He was really the puppet master behind Dodi and Diana’s very brief, barely more than a month, romance.”
Although a spokesperson for the Fayed family had denied these claims in 1997.
Was Dodi in the car with Diana?
The couple’s relationship was cut extremely short after they both died in a tragic car accident on Alma’s bridge in August 1997 while they were vacationing in Paris following a trip to the French and Italian Riviera.
