Mohamed Al-Fayed, an Egyptian businessman and the father of the man who died alongside Princess Diana in a 1997 car crash, has died at 94, according to a Friday statement from his family. The statement confirmed that Al-Fayed—who formerly owned Harrods department store, the Ritz Hotel in Paris, and the Fulham Football Club—“passed away peacefully of old age.” “We owe Mohamed a debt of gratitude for what he did for our club, and our thoughts now are with his family and friends at this sombre time,” Fulham FC told BBC. Al-Fayed had publicly insisted that Diana and his son were murdered and had butted heads with the royal family. He also achieved notoriety for his multiple public attempts to secure British citizenship, which he never achieved. He once suggested Prince Philip and the MI6 were behind the crash, but his claims were dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” and rejected by a jury.
