By the mid-90s, Dodi Al-Fayed had become the heir to those playboys who made history such as Porfirio Rubirosa and Gunter Sachs. As the son of billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed - owner of Harrods and Fulham FC - he had the doors open to luxury, conquered countless models and actresses and ended up falling in love and dying on August 31, 1997 with a princess, Diana of Wales. That summer they were the most mediatic couple in recent years.
A blurry, pixelated photo published on August 10, 1997 in The Sunday Mirror showing Dodi and Diana embracing and kissing on the deck of the Al-Fayeds' yacht Jonikal confirmed what was an open secret. They were in love. But behind closed doors the situation was more complicated, since Dodi had been engaged a few months earlier to model Kelly Fisher. That's how the American found out about the real love story.
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The start of the sixth season of The Crown revivesthis love triangle that delighted the British tabloid press and, therefore, the world. It should not be forgotten that the Princess of Wales was one of the most photographed women on the planet.
Their love story
Kelly and Dodi met in Paris in the summer of 1996. From the first meeting, sparks flew, which led to the millionaire giving her an engagement ring in February of the following year, composed of a large central sapphire surrounded by diamonds. Curiously, that jewel was similar to the one that the then Charles of England, Prince of Wales had given to the young Diana Spencer in February 1981 to announce their engagement.
Lady Di and Dodi Al-Fayed, in July 1997.
When Kelly accepted the proposal, she was a well-known model who had lent her image to Armani, Victoria's Secret, and Calvin Klein and had appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle, and W. Due to his father's job as vice president of an international company, the Fishers moved several times. Kelly lived until she was eight years old in Kentucky and then moved to Toronto, Canada, where at the age of 16 she became independent to fulfill her dreams as a model.
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When at the age of 29 she found herself with a very expensive ring, she thought she was going to fulfill another of her dreams, that of starting a family. Dodi, 41, had bought a €5.7 million mansion in Malibu facing the waters of the Pacific to form his love nest. In addition, the couple had reached an agreement whereby the model left her profession in exchange for $500,000. When Mohamed Al-Fayed found out about his son's intentions, he tried to scuttle his plans because he wanted his son to be related to the Windsors, whom he used to deal with often. The businessman did not hesitate to call Kelly a "prostitute" and a "gold digger" when he had married former Finnish model Heini Wathén in 1985, with whom he would have four daughters.
What seemed like a fairy tale that was going to culminate in a wedding on August 9, 1997 suddenly fell apart in a few months. Kelly was devastated when she saw the famous images from August 10 of that year. The media was already talking about the liaison between Dodi and Diana while he was still engaged. When the scandal broke, Kelly was on another Al-Fayed yacht a short distance away in waters off the Côte d'Azur.
In South Carolina
In no time at all, Kelly contacted attorney Gloria Allred to file a lawsuit against Dodi for breach of contract in their marriage agreement. The model had only received $60,000 and a check for $200,000 that the bank had rejected. At a crowded press conference in which Kelly shed as many tears as the carat of the ring he showed in front of the cameras, he said that he was claiming the $440,000 he was missing. But the trial was never held because the blood got into the river. While Dodi and Diana were racing at high speed along the Seine at the Pont de l'Alma, the lovers lost their lives.
Little by little, Kelly fell into oblivion. She rebuilt her life with Russian pilot Mikkail Movshina, whom she had met during a safari in Africa. They married in 2007 and four years latertheir daughter Aiken was born. Awayfrom the media spotlight, after living in Paris, Switzerland and the French Alps, Kelly and his family now live in the state of South Carolina.