Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Princess Diana’s lover Dodi Fayed, has been accused of raping five women and sexually assaulting 20 others at a series of locations, including a royal palace featured in Netflix’s The Crown. In the new BBC documentary Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods, women who worked at the British luxury department store claimed the Egyptian billionaire raped them at Villa Windsor in Paris' Bois de Boulogne. One woman named Gemma said she told Al Fayed “No, I don't want you to” before he allegedly forced himself on her at the 14-bedroom home of post-abdication King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson, shown in season three of the hit historical drama.
"And he proceeded to just keep trying to get in the bed, at which point he was kind of on top of me and (I) really couldn't move anywhere,” she said. "I was kind of face down on the bed and he just pressed himself on me." The alleged victim said the British tycoon, who die in 2023 aged 94, told her to wash herself with Dettol in an attempt to cover evidence.
“Obviously he wanted me to erase any trace of him being anywhere near me,” she said. A woman named Sophia claimed he attempted to rape her more than once at Villa Windsor. She said she screamed at and kicked him during one of the alleged attacks, adding “he was vile”.
Sophia said Al-Fayed’s portrayal in The Crown, played by 74-year-old Palestinian actor Salim Daw, was inaccurate. The billionaire’s storyline follows his seeming hand in .