Princess Diana Was Betrayed by "Monster of Harrods" Mohamed Al-Fayed's Security Guards, Per Shocking New Book
"You had to be on your toes," a former guard said in the explosive tell-all.
Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Princess Diana's boyfriend Dodi Fayed, was a major figure in the news at the time of Diana and Dodi's tragic 1997 death. But the late Harrods owner—who died in 2023—has been back in the spotlight after a bombshell BBC documentary, Al-Fayed: Predator at Harrods, revealed allegations that the businessman had sexually assaulted more than 20 former employees. Now, author Alison Kervin has investigated the chilling claims in a new book, The Monster of Harrods.
In an excerpt published in the Times, Kervin—who spoke with 60 "survivors, witnesses and former employees" for the tell-all—wrote that Al-Fayed would "stroll around" Harrods "looking for women to abuse." One security guard, Biggie, told the author that "he witnessed girls coming out of Fayed’s office crying, disheveled and terrified."
"You had to be on your toes," Biggie told Kervin. "It got to the stage where not knowing where Sarah from menswear had gone filled me with more terror than terrorist sightings in Northern Ireland."
Diana is pictured with Al-Fayed at a 1996 dinner for the Harefield Heart Unit held at Harrods.
While Harrods employees reportedly lived in fear of Al-Fayed, Kervin wrote that Princess Diana also tried to avoid the Egyptian businessman.
"One person who was always welcome in Harrods was Princess Diana," Kervin wrote, adding that the royal "would arrive through a discreet entrance." Biggie told the author that Diana "would ask security on the door, 'How long do you think we’ve got today? Four or five minutes?'" referring to how long before Al-Fayed would find out she was there.
"They always laughed, then minutes later the chairman was there, thrilled to see her," the former Harrods guard told Kervin. "She didn’t realise it was exactly those bodyguards who were telling him that she was there."
Princess Diana and Prince Charles are seen with Al-Fayed at the 1987 Harrods Polo Cup in Windsor.
The Monster of Harrods shares multiple first-hand accounts from survivors who claim they were raped by Al-Fayed, including one woman who was only 16 at the time and another who said she became pregnant after the assault.
Belinda, whose name has been changed for the book, told Kervin that after she took a positive pregnancy test and went to the Harrods doctor, she was followed by company security guards. "One said they knew where my parents lived and would cause trouble if I breathed a word about this to anyone," she told the author. "I was made to sign an NDA. They said they would meet me at the corner of my road and take me to have an abortion the next day."
