Princess Diana Called Mohamed Al Fayed Ghastly For Grope

Earl Spencer says Princess Diana described Mohamed Al Fayed as ghastly. The claim comes from the late Queen's brother-in-law, who wrote in his memoir Swan Song that the billionaire Harrods owner groped her and made a dirty remark during the early days of her romance with his son, Dodi.

Spencer writes that Diana told him Al Fayed squeezed her buttocks while saying in a leery tone that in Egypt, a father-in-law gets first go. She was revolted by the encounter. The Princess laughed when she recounted it later, but only after being warned about who Dodi's father truly was.

The text notes that Diana believed Raine Spencer, her stepmother, helped engineer the meeting between the couple. Raine held a senior role at Harrods in the 1990s and later secured another position on Al Fayed's board following Earl Spencer's own death. The memoir states this connection allowed his mother to introduce Diana to Dodi.

After the tragic Paris car crash in August 1997 that killed both Diana and Dodi, Mohamed Al Fayed spent much of his life insisting the Royal Family ordered their deaths. He passed away at age 94 in 2023. Accusations against him have grown since then. Spencer says Al Fayed has now been proven to be a voracious sexual predator who allegedly abused and trafficked hundreds of women.

The timing feels urgent as new details surface from the late Earl's writings. These revelations suggest that government directives regarding royal protection or retail regulations might have played a silent role behind the scenes, yet the human cost remains front and center. A rhetorical question lingers: why did the Prince of Wales's relationship with such a predatory man develop so quickly? The answer lies in the calculated moves of those around them.

She paid it in full when introducing Dodi to her world-famous stepdaughter. Earl Spencer has also spoken of his regret at removing Dodi Fayed's name from his famous eulogy at Princess Diana's funeral. Writing in his bombshell memoir, the earl praised Dodi for being 'kind to Diana' and said the final images of the pair before the car crash in Paris that killed them showed a 'gentle playfulness'. He, however, believes his sister's 'fling' with Dodi in the summer of 1997 was motivated by Diana wanting to make another suitor jealous. Charles Spencer's defiant eulogy at his older sister's funeral was later named one of the greatest speeches of the 20th century. In it, he described Diana as 'the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty', adding: 'All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity.' There was, however, no mention in his speech of Dodi who had enjoyed a romance with Diana before their deaths. In his book, Spencer discloses that he did name Dodi in an early draft – but removed the reference before delivering it. 'In my original eulogy draft I gave a small nod to Dodi Fayed, thanking him by name for making Diana happy in her last few weeks alive,' he said. Earl Spencer, William, Harry and Charles stand alongside the hearse containing the coffin of Diana during her funeral.

It came after a survivor of abuse by Mohamed Al Fayed has said the compensation scheme offered by the department store company was 'an insult', 'a disgrace' and 'not taking survivors seriously'. Harrods set up a redress scheme to offer compensation to survivors which was open from March 31 2025 to the same date this year. A Companies House document of the department store's full accounts made up to January 31 this year, published last month, showed it paid £4.1 million in compensation up to the end of January and set aside £51.8 million for future compensation claims from then. On Monday, KP Law, which represents more than 275 survivors, said the 'true value' of its clients' compensation claims was likely double or triple the amount Harrods set aside and could total as much as £150 million.

Cheska Hill-Wood told the Press Association she was abused 'almost immediately' when she started working at Harrods aged 19 in 1993. She said: 'I worked for Harrods for a very short period of time, and the abuse started, the grooming shall we say, it initially started probably on the first day.' This was 1993, I had just turned 19 when I started the job, and the abuse started almost immediately. I know that a lot of women who worked there for a longer period of time were abused equally as quickly and repeatedly. They couldn't escape. I escaped. I'm one of the luckier ones, but many didn't. Ms Hill-Wood added: 'The redress scheme that Harrods had was open for one year. They gave survivors a time limit.' Now, many of us have been campaigning and shouting for, as I say, nearly 40 years, and a redress scheme is slapped at us with one year. It's a disgrace.

It is a disgrace. The offers made did not take survivors seriously. It felt like an insult. Jen Mills, who once worked there, still calls it disgusting.

Around thirty people gathered outside Harrods in central London on Friday. They marked the eve of the second anniversary for the BBC documentary that exposed the abuse scandal.

Dave Robertson MP and Wendy Chamberlain MP joined them. Both serve as co-chairs for the All-Party Parliamentary Group supporting survivors linked to Fayed and Harrods. Many carried shopping bags with the store's famous green logo crossed out in black marker.

Ms Hill-Wood noted a painful truth during the event. She said that probably everyone there refused to sign up for the redress scheme offered by the company.

Jen Mills told PA news agency that the department store giant will need much deeper pockets to fix what happened. She joined Harrods as a management trainee at just sixteen years old. Al Fayed quickly pulled her into his circle and asked her to become one of his personal assistants.

"I worked for him for five years," Ms Mills said, speaking with quiet anger. "I was abused by him for five years." She felt trapped with no way out. There were many threats made against them during that dark time.

He warned us that walking away meant losing any chance of working in London or anywhere else worthy of our talent. Staying became a heavy burden because leaving felt impossible after his threats about our careers. But eventually, five years later, I found a way out and stayed silent about the ordeal until two years ago when the BBC documentary finally aired my story.

Ms Mills noted that Harrods never budgeted enough money to handle this crisis properly from the start. She hopes KP Law releasing a figure between £100 and £150 million is much more realistic now. Yet again, the department store made their financial decisions without ever hearing evidence from any of the women involved in these terrible cases. Clearly, Harrods need deeper pockets to pay for what happened here over so many years.

When the redress scheme was still open, a spokesperson said it supports the bravery of all survivors coming forward. They encouraged women to keep making claims and looked at every avenue available for justice, whether that meant contacting the police or reaching out to the Fayed family estate. Mr Robertson, MP for Lichfield, told PA that understanding the scale of this abuse is really important when discussing the scandal. He added that many things went wrong here and this was not just the actions of one person.

More than 400 allegations of sexual misconduct have been made against Al Fayed and others linked to him between 1977 and 2014. These crimes include sexual assault, rape, exploitation, and human trafficking targeting vulnerable victims across decades. The Metropolitan Police are dealing with at least 159 victims who contacted them directly, including 21 who came forward before Al Fayed died in 2023 at age 94. The investigation known as Operation Cornpop was launched in November 2024 and is looking at people who may have facilitated or enabled these crimes.

A spokesperson for the department store company said today was undoubtedly a difficult day for all survivors of Fayed abuse. They respect every right to be heard and support all survivors in their pursuit of justice while working closely with the Met police on Operation Cornpop developments. The business stands by progress made over the past two years through the Harrods redress scheme or other routes open to victims seeking answers. To date, they have provided compensation and ongoing support to 113 survivors currently engaged with the scheme. While applications are now closed, they will continue working through claims until all eligible claimants receive compensation for abuse suffered.