FLAMBOYANT & FLAWED

Mohamed Al-Fayed died without ever making it into the upper echelons of British society he so badly coveted and without ever getting over his son Dodi's death alongside Princess Diana

- SIPHOKAZI ZAMA

IT'S perhaps fitting that he died on the anniversary of the tragedy that came to dominate his life.

Nearly 26 years to the day his beloved son Dodi and Princess Diana perished in a Paris tunnel, Mohamed AlFayed drew his last breath at his London home.

The 94-year-old Egyptian businessman never got over his son's death and for years believed Dodi (42) and Diana (36) were killed in a conspiracy masterminded by the British royal family because they didn't want Diana to marry a Muslim.

In his dotage, Mohamed had withdrawn from public life and lived quietly with his wife, Finnish model Heini Wathén (68), with whom he had four children, daughters Jasmine (43) and Camilla (38) and sons Karim (40) and Omar (35).

The former owner of Harrods and Fulham Football Club had reportedly been ill for some time and suffering from dementia. His funeral, which followed Islamic rites and took place within 24 hours of his death, was markedly low-key for the flamboyant businessman who revelled in glitz and glamour.

Only about 30 friends and family members travelled with the hearse to London Central Mosque in Regent Park, Mohamed's simple brown coffin draped with a black cloth embroidered in gold with scriptures from the Quran.

He was buried at the family mausoleum at his 17th-century country home in Surrey, where Dodi was also laid to rest.

Chester Stern, a close family friend, describes the date of his passing - 31 August, a day after the anniversary of Dodi and Diana's death - as poignant. "You have to ask whether kismet - or fate was playing a part in all of this," he says.

Chester says Mohamed had begun to make peace with his son and Diana's death in his later years.

"He stopped being so vocal about it all after the 2008 inquest," he says. "He didn't publicly accept it was an accident, but he may have privately accepted it."