In the early hours of Sunday morning, August 31, 1997, the family of British-Egyptian businessman Emad Al-Din Al-Fayed, known as "Dodi Al-Fayed", was devastated by the news of his death with his girlfriend Princess Diana Spencer, Duchess of Wales, in a road accident known as the Alma Bridge Tunnel incident.

A million funeral for the Princess of Hearts

Despite her exclusion from the royal family, after her divorce from Prince Charles, the death of Diana and Doi was met with exceptional public expressions, and her funeral, at Westminster Abbey on September 6, was attended by nearly 3 million mourners in London, and television coverage was seen around the world on a screen. Television is watched by more than 2.5 billion people, and is broadcast in 200 countries in 44 languages.

Crowds outside the church and in Hyde Park watched and heard the proceedings on outdoor screens and speakers as guests filled the space, including representatives from the many associations Diana sponsored.

In attendance were US First Lady Hillary Clinton, Bernadette Chirac, wife of French President Jacques Chirac, and other celebrities.

Accident or assassination?

French and British police investigations concluded that Dodi Al Fayed's driver was driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs, while the photojournalists who were stalking Fayed and Diana are also believed to have contributed to the accident.

Dodi's father, businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed, also claimed that they had been assassinated by MI6 agents.

Michael Cole, Al Fayed's former spokesman, said Diana and Dodi were engaged before their deaths.

Celebrate their memory

Al-Fayed's father erected two memorials gathering his son and Diana at Harrods.

The first was announced on April 12, 1998, and consists of photographs of the two behind a pyramid-shaped display with a cup still in it, lipstick from Diana's last dinner, as well as a ring that Dodi Al Fayed had bought the day before their deaths.

The second, unveiled in 2005, entitled "Innocent Victims" is a 3-meter-high bronze statue depicting the two dancing on the beach under the wings of a seagull.

The memorials were designed by Bill Mitchell, a close friend of Dodi's father and an architect who worked for Harrods for more than 40 years.

In January 2018, it was announced that the statue would be removed from Harrods and returned to the Al-Fayed family.

Dodi Al Fayed.. not only Diana's friend

Perhaps the tragic end of the late Emad El-Din Al-Fayed was a shorthand description of the Egyptian-British businessman, being a friend of Diana Spencer, who brought them together at one end, but he was a disgraceful shorthand for someone who achieved professional success. Al-Fayed is the executive producer of the films Chariots of Fire, Breaking Glass, The Scarlet Letter and Hook.

He also held the position of diplomatic attaché at a Gulf embassy in London after graduating from the Le Rosé Institute in Switzerland.

Does Dodi appear in the series The Crown?

Just as it sparked controversy in her life and in the accident of her death, the character of Princess "Diana" Spencer, Duchess of Wales, and Prince Charles' ex-wife, has sparked controversy since her appearance in the fourth season of the series "The Crown", which focuses on the life of Queen Elizabeth II and her royal family, to the point that it prompted British Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has asked Netflix to point out that "The Crown" is a fictional series, explaining that some of the events depicted in the show should not be taken as fact.

The reason for the controversy caused by the series is that Princess Diana is one of the main themes in the fourth season that was shown some time ago, and pictures of Diana’s suffering with her husband, and the story of repeated betrayals between them, as well as depicting Diana’s suffering from “bulimia” in several episodes, a disease that causes In making his patient eat large quantities of food within a short period of time, warning signs were placed on these episodes accompanied by a “health” warning before they began.

In the historical sequence of events, the death of the beloved princess is supposed to appear, as well as the events of her divorce and the problems that appeared between her and her ex-husband, Prince Charles, in the next season, which is expected to be shown in 2022.

Although there is no news yet about who will play the role in the fifth season, the character of Dodi Al-Fayed will certainly appear as the second victim of the accident that killed Diana Spencer, but which novels will the series makers adopt?

The possibilities tend to adopt the French and British police account, which indicates that it was an accident caused by several factors, including the driver being under the influence of alcohol, the failure of the victims to adhere to seat belts, as well as the pursuit of journalists and photographers for the two victims.