How Mohamed Al Fayed used ‘royal palace’ featured in The Crown to ‘rape and prey on victims’

MOHAMED Al Fayed has been accused of using a royal palace featured in The Crown to rape and sexually assault victims.

Five women have alleged they were raped by the Egyptian billionaire, who died last year aged 94, and a further 20 female employees claim Al Fayed sexually assaulted them across multiple locations.

The new documentary – called Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods – hears claims from women who worked at Harrods from the late 1980s to 2000s, after an investigation by the BBC.

Female employees allege that assaults were carried out at different locations, including the company’s offices, in Al Fayed’s London apartment, or on foreign trips often in Paris at the Ritz hotel.

And multiple women have even claimed that the billionaire raped or sexually assaulted them at “Villa Windsor” in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne.

The lavish 14-room mansion was the home of post-abdication King Edward VIII and his wife Wallis Simpson.

The Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s luxurious French property recently featured on The Crown’s third season.

Al Fayed took out a 50-year lease on the 14-room, 19th century villa and the Egyptian billionaire would go on to rename it the “Villa Windsor” after completing a £10.4 million restoration back in 1990.

Now, one woman named Gemma – who worked as one of his personal assistants between 2007 and 2009 – has claimed Al Fayed raped her at the historic Parisian villa.

Gemma described waking up to find him attempting to get into bed with her, adding: “I told him, “No, I don’t want you to”. 

“And he proceeded to just keep trying to get in the bed, at which point he was kind of on top of me and [I] really couldn’t move anywhere.

“I was kind of face down on the bed and he just pressed himself on me.”

She told the BBC that after the Harrods tycoon raped her she cried, while he got up and told her aggressively to wash herself with Dettol.

“Obviously he wanted me to erase any trace of him being anywhere near me,” she explains.

Al Fayed – whose son Dodi was killed in a car crash alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997 – has become known to a new generation through the two most recent Netflix series of The Crown.

But another alleged victim has claimed that his portrayal as pleasant and gregarious was far from the truth.

Speaking to the BBC, Sophia, who worked as his personal assistant from 1988 to 1991, said Al Fayed tried to rape her more than once.

One of those attempts took place at the Villa Windsor where the Egyptian billionaire allegedly tried to force himself on her.

Sophia claims she had to kick and scream for him to get off.

She said: “He was vile.”

Speaking about his portrayal in the Crown, she said: “That makes me angry, people shouldn’t remember him like that. It’s not how he was.”

The lavish interior of “Villa Windsor” boasted 14-rooms of the highest quality, and had a unique aristocratic style.

Designed by legendary interior designer Stephane Boudin, Wallis Simpson soon put her own stamp on the property.

This included intricate eighteenth-century panelling and “Wallis blue” – a shade invented in 1937 for the Duchess herself, reports Town and Country.

And the ornate mansion was also host to paint framed treasures like a Venetian Rococo console table and Japanese screen, purported to be a gift from Emperor Hirohito. 

The impressive property is adorned with porcelain, polished wood and leather and vintage chandeliers.

The stunning mansion was described as “genuinely scintillating” by Vogue back in 1963 and has been the location for many dinner parties.

Those famous dinner gatherings included guests such as Marlene Dietrich, Aristotle Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor, and the Aga Khan.

Elsewhere in the third episode of The Crown, Mohamed Al Fayed is shown buying the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s French home after Wallis Simpson died in 1986.

In real life, Al Fayed did take out a 50-year lease on the 14-room, 19th century villa with the intention of turning it into a museum dedicated to the former King and his wife.

Following the allegations against Al Fayed, Harrods said in a statement to the BBC: “The Harrods of today is a very different organisation to the one owned and controlled by Al Fayed between 1985 and 2010.

“It is one that seeks to put the welfare of our employees at the heart of everything we do.

“Since new information came to light in 2023 about historic allegations of sexual abuse by Al Fayed, it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible.

“This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.

“While we cannot undo the past, we have been determined to do the right thing as an organisation, driven by the values we hold today, while ensuring that such behaviour can never be repeated in the future.”