The Crown: Inside Dodi Fayed’s hugely successful career as a billionaire film producer

Part one of The Crown season six is all about Princess Diana and her relationship with Dodi Fayed. Dodi Fayed had a hugely successful career as a film producer, and was engaged to a model when he first started to become romantically involved with Diana.

Dodi was an Egyptian film producer and the son of billionaire, Mohamed Al-Fayed. He was born in Alexandria, and was the eldest son of Mohamed, who was the former owner of Harrods, Fulham football club and Hotel Ritz Paris. Dodi’s mother was Saudi Arabian author, Samira Khashoggi.

Dodi and his father in 1986, via Alan Davidson/Shutterstock

During his career as a film producer, Dodi Fayed worked on some hugely successful projects

Through his family’s production company, Allied Stars, Dodi Fayed was executive producer of many films. He produced the 1981 film Chariots of Fire, which went on to win an Oscar – it was awarded Best Picture. However, another producer on the project told Vanity Fair Dodi didn’t do much work on the film as a producer, and said: “Dodi came on the set for a couple of days, and he came for some postproduction.”

Dodi was also executive producer of the films Breaking Glass, F/X, F/X2, Hook and The Scarlet Letter, and executive creative consultant for F/X: The Series. The films he worked on starred huge names, including Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Gary Oldman and Demi Moore.

Dodi also worked for his father on a number of his business projects, including working on the Harrods’ marketing. He reportedly had an allowance of £400k a month from his father.

Prior to Dodi dating Diana, The Guardian reported Dodi was was “linked to a lot of women” in the industry, including Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts, Winona Ryder, and Daryl Hannah.

Dodi and Julia Roberts in 1997, via Harry Myers/Shutterstock

He had an estimated net worth in the billions

According to reports, Dodi Fayed had an estimated net worth of $1billion at the time of his death, mainly from his father’s net worth of $2billion.

Part one of The Crown season six is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops, quizzes and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Inside Camilla’s 50th birthday bash, and what actually happened at the real life event

• Meet Kelly Fisher: The model who was Dodi Fayed’s fiancée when he dated Diana

• The Crown on Netflix: What does persona non grata actually mean?

Featured image via Netflix / Shutterstock.