Mohammed Al Fayed would tell his female staff to call him “Papa.”
Some 37 women are now accusing the Egyptian billionaire of sexual assault and in some cases rape, including six Americans and one woman who gave an exclusive U.S. media interview to NBC News. Al Fayed, the former owner of London’s luxury department store Harrods who was featured prominently in Netflix series “The Crown,” died in 2023 at the age of 94.
But the women — many of whom appeared at a news conference in the British capital Friday, where lawyer Gloria Allred described what she said was the “systematic trafficking of women for sexual gratification” — have spoken out this week as part of a BBC documentary and podcast investigation, “Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods.” The British public broadcaster’s reporting includes allegations from numerous Harrods staffers, five of whom say they were raped by Al Fayed.
He would say, “come to Papa, I’ll protect you,” recalls Sophia Stone, who worked as Al Fayed’s personal assistant from 1988 to 1991.
Stone sat down with NBC News on Thursday, just a few blocks away from her former workplace. In a lengthy interview,
Stone alleged that during the time she was employed at Harrods, Al Fayed subjected her to unwanted physical contact, and alleged he sexually assaulted and attempted to rape her on multiple occasions.
She says she previously reached a settlement with Harrods but has now joined the lawsuit against the luxury store. The details of that settlement and whether that could preclude her from entering into this lawsuit were not immediately clear.
One of the attorney’s representing the women, Maria Mulla, said the lawyers are “still investigating the circumstances under which those [settlements] were reached.”
This is not the first time allegations have been levied against Al Fayed. In 1995, a Vanity Fair article reporting that the allegations included racial discrimination, bugging employees phones and enforcing HIV testing, sparked a libel lawsuit by Al Fayed that he dropped two years later. Britain’s Channel 4 broadcast allegations of sexual assault in 2017 and 2018. Al Fayed had already sold Harrods at the time Channel 4’s broadcasts aired. But, the BBC says, many of Al Fayed’s accusers were only comfortable coming out now, following his death last year.
Stone said that Al Fayed preferred blonds and would give his female staff money to dress in a certain way. “More traditional, sort of, kind of like an English rose,” she explained.
Al Fayed was often described in the British media as obsessed with British aristocracy, and, as Stone recalled, he was also obsessed with Princess Diana. “He was sending her notes, always sending her little gifts, always sending things,” she said.
Al Fayed’s connection to the royal family eventually became much closer, but reached a tragic end. His son, Dodi, was in a romantic relationship with Princess Diana in 1997, and was killed with her in the car crash in Paris that year. A fictionalized version of their relationship was depicted in the Netflix series last year, and included a warm and sympathetic portrayal of Al Fayed. NBC News has reached out to Netflix for comment.
All the while, Al Fayed was at the center of what Stone, her husband and their lawyers believe could be one of the biggest corporate sexual abuse scandals in the world. A team of U.K.-based lawyers were joined by Allred in London on Friday to announce the details of the legal claim being brought against Harrods. Many of the 37 victims have since moved out of the U.K. and some now live in the U.S.
Attorney Maria Mulla said there’s a lot to go through and that lawsuits have not yet been filed. She noted the complexity of the case and various victims, adding that there were “potential jurisdiction elements that need to be considered.”
Among the allegations outlined by the lawyers was that women who worked directly for Al Fayed, a known germaphobe, underwent invasive medical exams to test them for sexually transmitted diseases with the results only sent to Al Fayed, not the employees themselves.
“The allegations against Mohamed Al Fayed include serial rape, attempted rape, sexual battery, sexual abuse of minors. They involve doctors administering invasive gynecological exams as a condition of employment for some of the employees,” said Allred, outlining what she said was “cover ups, threats and a quarter century of sexual abuse.” She told NBC News that she was not legally representing the American accusers but was “supporting” them and consulting for the British attorneys.
Stone struggled to explain the hold Al Fayed had on her and other female staffers. She described him as a sort of fatherly figure who vowed to protect them, but “he kind of brainwashed me to start with,” she went on to say. “I felt like I had this – I hated him, but I also thought he was like ...” Stone then broke down in tears.
The attorneys representing the accusers said Friday that in the hours following the news conference, they have already had more than 200 people reach out to them with additional allegations. Those claims still need to be vetted.
20 Sep 2024, 2:54 pm
