The Crown: Mohamed Al-Fayed and his wealth

In the Crown season 5, episode 3 Mohammad Al-Fayed (Salim Daw) was introduced, and many of us thought that is the rich.

Here is how rich the Egyptian billionaire is in real life. His friend called him Mohammed or Mou Mou. He is the father of Dodi fayed, Dodi Fayed is destined to become princess Diana’s (Elizabeth Debicki) lover and he died in a Paris car crash with the princess of Wales on August 31, 1997.

An entire episode of The Crown season 5 is devoted to Mohamed Al-Fayed, He is a non-member of the royal family but the rare occurrence of the royal family signifies the Mou Mou’s importance.

The Crown: Mohamed Al-Fayed and his wealth

Who is Mohamed Al-Fayed?

The Egyptian billionaire and his late son, who died with Princess of Wale.  They are portrayed in season five of the Netflix series. Mohamed Al-Fayed (portrayed in The Crown by Salim Daw) was born in Alexandria Egypt in 1929.

He was born at the time when Egypt had become newly independent from British rule, but they were still influenced by the colonial power.

Adding to this he had given many accounts of the dynastic wealth of his ancestors; there was more possibility of his father being either teacher or school inspector.

In the year 1952, Mohamed Al-Fayed met Adnan Khashoggi, who was going to become a well-known Saudi Billionaire arms dealer. Adnan’s father Mohammed was the personal doctor of Ibn Saud, he was the first king of Saudi Arabia.

After being impressed by Mohamed’s business intelligence Khashoggi gave him a job in his furniture company, and the Egyptians are helping in generating large profits.

In 1954, he was married to Khashoggi’s sister Samira, who was aged 18 years at the time. In the passing year, she gave birth to his only child Emad El-Din Mohamed Abdel Mena’em Fayed, known as Dodi. Mohamed and his wife Samira divorced when their son was four years old.

Mohamed Al-Fayed’s Business Empire

In 1952, the Egyptian revolution accompanied by the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser, and the 1956 Suez Crisis, allowed Fayed to buy a shipping business at a discount in the late 50s.

In the following years he relocated to the UK, where he become the advisor of the Sultan of Brunei and after that, he starts counted the richest people in the world.

Adding to this, he also helped the former Dubai ruler Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum in building up the infrastructure of the city and he introduce British companies to it. In this deal, he earned a large commission.

Later he bought a string of big asset properties: The Ritz hotel in Paris in 1979, department store Harrods in London in 1984, and Fulham football club in 1997.

Samira is not his only spouse in 1985 he married a former Finnish model, Heidi Wathen. He and Heidi have four children.

The latest season of The Crown features the episode “Mou Mou” named after his nickname. Who tries to fit into the British high society and attempts to attract especially royal family.

But his attempt to be the part did not always work, UK report concluded that he lied about his origin and wealth and he was rejected twice for British citizenship.

However, in the third episode of season five of The Crown, Mohamed is shown buying the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's French home. After the death of Wallis Simpson in 1986. Well, he still owns the Villa Windsor but it is not open to the public.