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.