‘The Father-in-Law Should Be First’: Princess Diana’s Brother Reveals Alleged Sexual Harassment by Dodi Fayed’s Father

Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has made a shocking revelation about the late Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi Fayed, whom the princess was dating in the final months of her life.

According to the Earl Spencer, Al-Fayed sexually harassed Diana at the very beginning of her relationship with his son, grabbing her buttocks and making an obscene joke about Egyptian traditions.

The revelations appear in Charles Spencer’s new memoir, Swan Song, in which he recounts his sister’s complicated relationship with the influential businessman and the circumstances surrounding her meeting with Dodi.

According to the Earl, Diana was repulsed by Mohamed Al-Fayed and once told her brother about an unpleasant incident that allegedly took place early in her relationship with Dodi. Spencer claims that the billionaire approached Diana, brazenly grabbed her buttocks and, with an obscene grin, said: “In Egypt, the father-in-law gets first rights to intimacy…”

“Diana told me about it with disgust. She laughed as she recalled the appalling incident, but by then she already understood what Dodi’s father was like,” Charles Spencer writes in his memoir.

According to the Earl, Diana believed that Al-Fayed had used his friendship with her stepmother, Raine, Countess Spencer, to arrange her introduction to Dodi and influence the course of their relationship.

After Charles Spencer’s father died, Raine took up a senior position on the board of Harrods, which was owned by Al-Fayed. Spencer believes it was through this connection that the businessman was able to grow closer to the Spencer family.

“It was through this later friendship that Raine arranged for Diana to meet Dodi Fayed. She and my father knew Dodi’s father, Mohamed. After my father’s death, Raine took up a senior position at Harrods, the department store owned by Mohamed Fayed,” the Earl writes.

Spencer believes Al-Fayed expected to receive something in return for his patronage of Raine, and that introducing Diana to Dodi became a kind of payment for the favor.

“Cunning Fayed would sooner or later demand payment for his patronage. And Raine paid in full by introducing Dodi to her world-famous stepdaughter,” Charles Spencer claims.

Princess Diana and Mohamed Al-Fayed had known each other well before her relationship with Dodi. In February 1996, they attended a charity dinner at Harrods together. In the summer of 1997, Diana spent time with Dodi in the south of France. In August of that year, both were killed in a car crash in Paris.

Following the tragedy, Al-Fayed spent many years claiming that the British royal family was behind the deaths of his son and the princess, allegedly orchestrating their murder. The billionaire died in 2023 at the age of 94.

Al-Fayed later became the center of a major scandal after hundreds of women accused him of sexual harassment, rape and trafficking. According to media reports, the alleged offenses dated back to the late 1990s.

In his memoir, Charles Spencer also discusses his regrets over the eulogy he delivered at his sister’s funeral in 1997. He says that in an earlier draft of the speech, he mentioned Dodi and thanked him for making Diana happy during the final weeks of her life. However, Fayed’s name was ultimately removed from the final version.

Spencer admits that he now regrets the decision, saying he believes Dodi showed genuine kindness toward his sister.

The Earl also reflects on the tenderness and playfulness he believes can be seen in the final photographs of Diana and Dodi, taken shortly before their deaths in Paris.

At the same time, Charles Spencer believes his sister’s summer romance with Dodi in 1997 may have been partly motivated by her desire to make another man jealous — someone who was showing an interest in her at the time. In his memoir, he describes the relationship as a brief infatuation, while acknowledging that Dodi was kind to Diana and made her happy during the final weeks of her life.