Inside Princess Diana’s ‘best holiday of her life’ with Mohamed Al Fayed and his son Dodi – but a friend warned her not to go, according to royal author

It’s one of the most recognisable photos of Princess Diana ever taken. 

Taken days before her tragic death in August 1997, she was captured wearing a blue swimming costume aboard the Jonikal, the boat owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, on a getaway with his son Dodi.

In the two years since the passing of Mohamed Al Fayed, decades of serious sexual abuse allegations against him have been exposed.

The former Harrods owner died aged 94 on August 30, 2023, 26 years after his eldest child, Dodi Fayed, died in the same crash that killed Diana. 

The Metropolitan Police says that 146 people have come forward in their ongoing investigation into Al Fayed, which began after 20 female ex-Harrods employees told the BBC that Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

In a statement by the Knightsbridge department store in 2023, the company said they were ‘utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse’ which they ‘condemn in the strongest terms’. 

In his biography of Princess Diana, Andrew Morton wrote: ‘While he is ruthless and dictatorial in business life, as those who have tangled with him will attest, Diana only saw the warm, generous and affectionate side of his character’.

It was for this reason – as well as wanting to avoid Camilla’s 50th celebrations – that Diana accepted his invitation to join his family for a holiday in the South of France in July 1997.

Morton wrote in his explosive book, Diana: Her True Story: ‘While she put a brave face on for the event, she knew that the media coverage would only reopen old wounds and reawaken old pains.’

Diana agreed that she and her boys would join Al-Fayed, his wife Heini and their four children at his holiday villa in St Tropez for nine days. The trip was depicted in season six of the Netflix series, The Crown.

But despite Diana’s stepmother working for Al Fayed and her father referring to the former Harrods boss as being like a ‘brother’ to him, some of the Princess’s friends were concerned about the trip.

Morton wrote: ‘Even though Fayed, a controversial figure, had known the Spencer family for years, several of her friends, including Rosa Monckton, wife of the then editor of the Sunday Telegraph, advised against accepting.’ 

The trip came as Al-Fayed began to settle a libel lawsuit he had filed against Vanity Fair concerning the 1995 article Holy War at Harrods.

The article detailed alleged sexual assaults by Al-Fayed, and the lawsuit concluded in December 1997 with a settlement, though Vanity Fair did not issue an apology or retract any part of the article. 

The evidence gathered during the case, including details about sexual health tests on employees, was sealed as part of the settlement and was not widely accessible until its use in a 2024 BBC investigation.

As noted by Morton, the world’s media were watching Diana on that trip.

He wrote: ‘For once Diana seemed relaxed and carefree, seemingly oblivious to the watching press as she jet-skied or swam off the beach in front of Fayed’s villa.

‘However, media censure that the Princess had chosen a dubious and inappropriate holiday host needled her.

‘She motored over to a boatload of British journalists and complained that they had been cruel to Fayed, whom she considered a long-standing family friend, and unfair to her and the boys, asking if they could leave them all in peace.

‘In a parting shot, she said: “Expect a big surprise in the next two weeks.” 

‘Given subsequent tragic events, there has been much speculation about what she meant.

‘It was an incident that seemed to symbolise her unworldly innocence as well as her constant vulnerability.

‘The ultimate irony was that, before the Fayed offer, she had already been invited to stay at a holiday home near Southampton in the Hamptons on the east coast of America by her billionaire friend Teddy Forstmann.

‘However, for some unknown reason, the security services did not feel that the place offered sufficient security for the Princess and her boys, and the offer was declined.’

Four days into the trip with Al Fayed’s family, Diana met his only son, Dodi, who was working as a Hollywood film producer.

The two hit it off, chatting and enjoying themselves on the trip that Diana described as ‘the best holiday of my life’.

In Spare, Harry wrote of the holiday: ‘Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven. The weather was sublime, the food was tasty, Mummy was smiling.’

Morton wrote: ‘As their friendship gathered strength, Mohamed Al Fayed encouraged his son’s budding relationship, unashamedly making clear his ambitions for his eldest son and the world’s most famous woman.

‘All the while Prince Charles’s shadow loomed in the background. 

‘In a curious way, his decision to “come out” in public by hosting her 50th birthday party seemed to have given Diana permission to be open about her love life as well.

‘In short, she was ready for romance.’ 

William and Harry returned to Balmoral in Scotland for a summer holiday with Prince Charles and in early August, Diana flew back to the South of France, where she and Dodi spent time together aboard the Jonikal. 

They were photographed by paparazzi photographer Mario Brenna, who sold the pictures to the Sunday Mirror for record-breaking prices. 

On August 24, 1997, the iconic photograph of Diana was taken as she sat at the end of the yacht’s diving board.

Dodi and Diana’s romance would be short-lived, but he showered her with gifts during their six-week relationship, including a pearl bracelet and diamond wristwatch, according to Vanity Fair.

On top of that, he was a ‘sympathetic, unthreatening listener,’ wrote Tom Bower, author of Mohamed Al-Fayed’s unauthorised biography.

Dodi, Diana and their driver Henri Paul were killed in a crash on August 31, 1997, just a month and a half after their ‘summer of love’.