Even from the grave, Mohamed Al-Fayed dictated his obituary. When news of his death emerged in September 2023, Al-Fayed’s loyal spokesman Michael Cole pronounced that the former owner of Harrods had been ‘full of great humanity’. ‘Many people’, Cole said, ‘were beneficiaries of his kindness and generosity’. When I was approached by the BBC to give my verdict on Fayed, my contribution that he had been a ‘pimp, rapist, fraudster and a habitual liar’ didn’t make the cut.
Even his name ‘Al’ Fayed was phoney, a concoction he dreamt up with his partner in crime, the Dubai ambassador Mahdi al Tajir in 1970. International travel for the Egyptian required endless visas, so Tajir agreed over lunch in the embassy’s kitchen that Fayed should get a Dubai diplomatic passport and a new identity – his age would be reduced by four years and ‘Al’ would be added, agreed Tajir, to ‘make you important’.
Like almost every British institution, the Royal Family had been bought by an Egyptian crook
In common with the BBC’s apparent ignorance and cowardice, most Sunday newspapers also described Fayed in glowing terms.
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