Was Diana Engaged to Dodi Fayed?
Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were engaged in the summer of 1997, shortly before their deaths in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997. The engagement ring, a 12-carat emerald-cut sapphire surrounded by diamonds set in 18-karat white gold, was purchased by Dodi from the Asprey & Garrard boutique in London. The ring was later placed on display at the Al-Fayed collection in Harrods, the London department store owned by Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, who confirmed the engagement publicly after the tragedy. The engagement lasted only a few weeks, making it one of the shortest high-profile engagements in modern royal history Forbes.
The engagement sparked intense global media coverage, with tabloids and broadsheets alike reporting daily on the relationship between the divorced Princess of Wales and the Egyptian-born British businessman. Mohamed Al-Fayed consistently maintained that the couple were deeply in love and planning a future together, while Buckingham Palace and the British royal family did not formally recognize the engagement. The lack of official recognition meant the engagement did not carry the same constitutional weight as previous royal betrothals, though public interest remained extremely high in the weeks leading up to August 31, 1997.
Dodi Fayed's Background and Net Worth
Dodi Fayed was born on April 15, 1955, in Alexandria, Egypt, and was the son of Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods and Fulham Football Club. Dodi worked as a film producer and was involved in several business ventures before meeting Diana, including a role at the family's real estate and hospitality holdings. His personal net worth at the time of his death was estimated at approximately $100 million, derived from his family's wealth and his own investments in film and property Forbes.
Mohamed Al-Fayed's business empire included the ownership of the iconic Harrods department store from 1985 until 2010, when the store was sold to Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, for an estimated $1.5 billion. Dodi was educated at the elite Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland and briefly attended the University of Oxford before leaving without completing a degree. His career in film production included work on several British and international projects, though he was not primarily known as a businessman in the same way his father was.
Relationship Timeline and Aftermath
Diana and Dodi first met in 1996 at a polo match in Dubai, and their relationship quickly became public in the summer of 1997 after they were photographed together on holiday in Sardinia and Saint-Tropez. The couple spent time together in Paris during late July and early August 1997, with Dodi reportedly planning to propose to Diana during a trip to his family's villa in the south of France. Their engagement was confirmed by Mohamed Al-Fayed on August 31, 1997, the same day Diana and Dodi died in a high-speed car chase through the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris Wikipedia.
The aftermath of the engagement and deaths led to multiple investigations