Content warning: This story discusses rape and sexual assault. Five women have come forward and accused Mohamed Al-Fayed of rape. The late ex-Harrods owner, whose son Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena'em “Dodi” Fayed is the former boyfriend of the late Princess Diana and also died in her infamous 1997 car crash , has been accused of sexual assault by more than 20 female ex-employees, five of whom who describe their experiences as rape, according to over 20 accounts from anonymous women who spoke to the BBC .
“Mohamed Al-Fayed was a monster, a sexual predator with no moral compass whatsoever,” said an anonymous woman, who told the BBC she was a teenager when Fayed raped her, noting that female employees at Harrods were considered his, “playthings.” She added, “We were all so scared. He actively cultivated fear.
If he said ‘jump’ employees would ask ‘how high.’” Upon being informed of the allegations against Fayed—who died in 2023 at the age of 94—the current owners of the upscale department store apologized, telling the BBC they were “utterly appalled” by the accusations. Women who provided statements to the BBC claimed that the assaults occurred in Harrods’ offices, in Fayed’s London apartment, in his Villa Windsor property, or during foreign trips, often in the Ritz hotel in Paris, which he owned.
Former employees—both male and female—told the BBC that it was “very clear” what was happening as the former Harrods owner would identify �.