Charles Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, revealed in his new memoirs scheduled to be published tomorrow, Tuesday, that his sister was subjected to sexual harassment by the late Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, at the beginning of her relationship with his son Dodi Al-Fayed in the summer of 1997.
Spencer explained in his book, entitled “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” that Princess Diana informed him that Al-Fayed Sr. approached her and put his hand on her body, uttering a phrase with a suggestive meaning in which he said: “In Egypt, the father-in-law has the right to try first.” He added that Diana responded to the incident with a smile tinged with shock, stressing that the incident created a deep feeling of “disgust” in her and revealed to her the truth about Al-Fayed’s personality.
These concerns coincide with the escalation of accusations against the late businessman, the former owner of the Harrods department store, as the number of victims of sexual misconduct and assaults attributed to him exceeded 400, following a BBC documentary in 2024, which documented detailed testimonies against Al-Fayed, who died the year before it was shown. In the same context, calls were made to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham to support the campaign led by the “Justice for Survivors of Al Fayed and Harrods” organization to demand justice for the victims.
The roots of the story go back to July 1997, when Princess Diana accepted Mohammed Al Fayed’s invitation to spend a vacation on board, a trip that witnessed the beginning of her love story with Dodi Al Fayed, before the duo ended their lives together in the famous traffic accident that occurred on August 31 of the same year in the French capital, Paris.
