World Of Secrets - Al Fayed, Predator at Harrods: 3. Paris

Episode Date: September 19, 2024

Work trips to “the city of lights” turn dark, as the extent of Mohamed Al Fayed’s power and control becomes clear. Staying in the historic Villa Windsor in Paris should have been a dream come true, but the women are left terrified. This season of World of Secrets is about sexual abuse. And this episode contains some of the most graphic descriptions. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, go to bbc.co.uk/actionline.Presented by Cassie Cornish-Trestrail and Shaimaa Khalil, and produced by Neal Razzell and Sally Abrahams. The editor is Matt Willis. It’s a Long Form Audio production for the BBC World Service.Special thanks to series consultant, Keaton Stone, director Erica Gornall and executive producer, Mike Radford.

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. A warning before we get started. This episode of World of Secrets contains descriptions of sexual assault, which some listeners may find distressing. I was walking home and I heard the crash. It's the early hours of a Sunday morning in Paris, August 31st, 1997. Christina, a young Swedish-American living in the French capital to continue an international career, has just crossed the River Seine after a late dinner with friends. I didn't know what it was.

Christina gives it little thought. It's part of the city's soundscape. And then I went home and my mother called me in the morning to tell me. And I'm like, oh, I heard it. At that exact moment, I was just on the other side of the bridge, literally. The details, in some ways, while terrible, are not out of the ordinary. A driver with alcohol and prescription drugs in his blood has lost control of his Mercedes and hit a pillar. His passengers suffer catastrophic injuries. But that's not why Christina's mum calls.

She's called because of one passenger in particular. calls. She's called because of one passenger in particular. Buckingham Palace has announced the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. The princess, who was 36, died late last night in a car crash in central Paris. Princess Diana was one of the most, if not the most beloved person on the planet. I love Diana so much. Everybody loves Diana. She had so much love for everybody. She should have had more given to her. And it's so tragic. She should have had more given to her. And it's so tragic. I remember the day after the accident so well. It was unbelievable.

Christina has always admired Princess Diana. Now divorced from Prince Charles, she's become an icon in her own right. A woman determined to stand up for her beliefs. Like many people that day, for Christina, Diana's death feels personal. There's been a continuous, non-stop flow of flowers. It's been building up from the floor and around the palace and stretches now for about 100 yards. No one could believe it. It was so strange. Everyone was filled with disbelief.

The crash also kills Princess Diana's boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed, Mohammed Al-Fayed's eldest son. Mr and Mrs Al-Fayed are devastated by their loss and they share the sorrow of the princess's family. I grew up in Alexandria, where Mohammed Al-Fayed is from. The photos of Diana and Dodi had been carried in every magazine and Egyptian newspaper. Something about this handsome Egyptian literally courting royalty captured the imagination. I'll never forget being in Egypt watching this news.

It was like the world had changed. And for Christina, the events of that night in Paris would set her on her own collision course with the billionaire predator. This is World of Secrets. Season 4, Al-Fayed, Predator at Harrods, from the BBC World Service. A story about power and control at the top of British society.

I'm Shaima Khalil. I'm Cassie Cornish-Trestrail. Episode 3. Harris. Back in London, Mohamed Al-Fayed responds to the deaths of Dodi and Diana as he does with all his problems. He throws money at it. Instantly sceptical of the official version of events, he launches his own investigation, assembling teams in London and Paris.

There were many lawyers, investigators, detectives, that sort of thing. Hired to work for Al-Fayed as a personal assistant, Christina is immediately thrust into the middle of it. Based in Paris, while her boss remains in London. There were many people, psychics calling or people with tips. Her job is to record, translate, and coordinate the flow of information. She speaks fluent French, which she assumes is what landed her the job. Although, there was an odd comment from her interviewer.

At one point it was mentioned how much I resembled his wife. And in one way I was flattered and in another way I was kind of like, hmm, is this good or is this bad? But Christina quickly moves on. She, like the rest of the world, is focusing on the case. It was just everywhere on all the covers of all the magazines, every month for months and months. This is the entire world grieving and in disbelief. It's such an honour to be deemed worthy of assisting these people with this historical event.

It was incredibly flattering and I took it very, very, very seriously. Her job is based in Al-Fayed's hotel. The iconic luxury haunt of the rich and famous. The Ritz Paris. As with the young women in London, Christina finds it enchanting. A dream opportunity come true. A beautiful, beautiful, beautiful place. You had the most beautiful people in the world coming there, the richest people in the world coming there, the most

famous people in the world coming there. I mean, really, it was vogue central. But behind the scenes, Al-Fayed's investigation into his son's death quickly turns dark. He questions everything, including the central premise that the crash was an accident. He tells Britain's Mirror newspaper, There was a conspiracy. I will not rest until I have established exactly what happened. What did the ambulances do exactly? What was the precise timing? How many seconds did it take?

Who was standing there? How many paparazzi were there? Who were they? What were they driving? Every single detail. And as Christina digests these details, her sympathy for Al-Fayed grows. Any parent who loses a child, that's your worst nightmare.

To have them die in this manner is even more horrible. And I have absolutely no doubt that he was grieving. Two months into the job, Al-Fayed summons her to London. She stays in one of his Park Lane apartments and heads to his executive suite in Harrods. She expects a formal meeting. It was really odd. It was as if there was a procession of women coming in all day long, and I was just one contestant or something.

Christina's turn comes. She goes into Altheid's private office, a place as ornate and exquisite as the Ritz, with low lighting and the scent of those candles. Altheid comes round from his big desk to greet her. They make small talk. There's nothing about work or the case. And that's it. Meeting adjourned.

And as she's leaving... He gave me a wad of money and said, go downstairs and buy yourself a treat. So he just gave me some cash, and I was kind of like, oh, that's nice. They next meet in Paris, at the Ritz. She enters, and he leans in to do that French thing of giving a light kiss on both cheeks. But when he did it to me, he did it here, which immediately set off all these alarms.

When she's telling me this, she's touching not her cheek, but the right edge of her mouth, just beyond her lips. And it was immediately coming over and putting his tongue in my mouth. And I closed my lips really hard, and he kind of giggled. Alfea tries with the tongue again at the next meeting. But this time, Christine is prepared. She turns her head quickly and he gets her ear. But he's not getting the hint. At a certain point, I think he gave up on trying to stick his tongue in my mouth and he just decided to greet me by squeezing my breasts like this.

And, you know, he'd make little noises like, like as if he was honking a horn or something. But it was actually kind of painful. This is just the beginning. From now on, all meetings have one purpose. What Christina describes next is difficult to hear. The only thing that he was interested in was touching my body and trying to convince me to have sex with him,

trying to put his hand up my skirt, grab my face and put my face on his genitals, grab my breasts, put his hand down my shirt. Remember, this is at the same time publicly he is getting sympathy from the world as the grieving father. But getting to the true circumstances behind the death of his son seems to be the last thing on his mind. Mohammed Al-Fayed was like an apex predator.

Like a lion lounging on the savannah, she says, watching antelopes stroll by. Let's see which one looks weak. Not that one. I don't feel like working up a sweat. Too strong. Oh, that one looks good. Oh, I'll take that one. oh, I'll take that one. And then it's like the excitement, I found one. She says his Paris office is the Savannah. He knew exactly where all the furniture was. He had done this for so long. He knew the layout.

And if I tried to hide behind one chair, he knew exactly. He was so agile, fast, just fast. He was so fast. Sound familiar? It's a lot like what we've heard from those who worked with Al-Fayed in London. His groping. His comments. His invincibility.

But Paris is different in an important way. Here, our apex predator is perhaps least restrained and most in control. Here is where he would bring women from London, including Gemma, the senior PA we met in the previous episode. The trips in general were terrifying, but for me there was one particular trip to Paris that was just the final straw for me. It was the most terrifying, and that's where in my head I was done.

For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood.

All episodes of Hollywood Exiles from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts. We're now travelling with Mohammed Al-Fayed. His staff are isolated and have no means of escape. Just a warning that the rest of this episode

contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault. Arriving in Paris was always like a massive circus. It's 2007 and we're with Gemma, Al-Fayed's 24-year-old senior personal assistant. We would arrive at the airport by private jet and then we'd be led into cars that had blue flashing lights and then we'd be escorted by normally be six or seven police cars and motorbikes following us with full siren all the way through Paris, following us with full siren all the way through Paris, which, you know, is quite scary.

When you're in the car going probably 100 miles an hour with police cars surrounding you, it makes you feel like, my goodness, why have we got this? Al-Thaid, as ever, is getting exactly what he wants, a security detail fit for a king. He has the money to pay for it, and in France, the connections to get it. He spent years getting close to Jacques Chirac. First, as mayor of Paris,

then, as president of France. And if the security is fit for a king, so too is the address. And if the security's fit for a king, so too is the address. Villa Windsor. A 14-room mansion on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, a huge park in the west of Paris. King Edward VIII moved here when he abdicated the British throne in 1936. I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as king as I would wish to do. After he was blocked from marrying the American divorcee, Wallace Simpson.

Without the help and support of the woman I love. Villa Windsor, the French neoclassical mansion set in the midst of acres of green, was home to the royal couple for 50 years, until her death. She died of pneumonia at her home in the Bois de Boulogne, aged 89. She died of pneumonia at her home in the Bois de Boulogne, aged 89. Then, in 1990, Al-Fayed gets the lease and begins a meticulous restoration, even hiring the king's former valet to advise on the details. It earns him France's highest civilian decoration, the Legion of Honour.

Through the decades, it's into this gated compound that Mohamed Al-Faid brings women, including, in the 1990s, another personal assistant we've met, Safaya. Breathtakingly beautiful, the Villa Windsor. You see drive up, it's just stunning, and I remember the crunchy gravel on the drive as you pull up in front of the house. I mean, when we arrived, he was very proud.

He was just like, look what I've done. I've restored this place. It was incredible, really, really incredible. After looking around, Sophia has shown her room, a small one, on an upper floor. There's no lock on the door, but she thinks maybe that's because it's an old house. It's late, she's already had dinner, so it's off to bed. And that's when he came into my room. And he's wearing his dressing gown undone like that and just his little sort of

and done like that and just his little sort of silk short things on and I was absolutely terrified I was under the covers he was you know got into bed with me he was trying to you know I tried to kiss me and I tried to rape me and tried to rape me. Got on top of me. I was kicking him and getting off, get off, get off. And somehow, just like, all my strength, I just... Screaming, get off, get off, and I kicked him off, I kicked him off, and he fell on the floor and the bed wasn't very high. No, it wasn't a high bed.

And he was, like, rolling on the floor, laughing again. He was just, like, laughing. to high bed and he was like rolling on the floor laughing again. He was just like laughing. Al-Fayed leaves and though he doesn't come back, for Safaya, it's a night of terror and not the last

Villa Windsor. Same opulence, same beauty, same terror. He'd told me that evening that I was sleeping in Diana's room. It was a huge, dark, grand room with a big mahogany four-poster bed. It's been a long day travelling from London. Gemma is exhausted. She gets into bed and falls asleep. But she stirs. I woke up startled, and he was just there wearing nothing but a silk, like, dressing gown-type smoking jacket thing. And he tried to get in the bed with me,

and I told him, no, I don't want you to. Can you leave me alone? I want to sleep. I'm tired. I gave him every excuse under the sun and he proceeded to just keep trying to get in the bed at which point he was kind of on top of me and really couldn't move anywhere I was kind of face down on the bed and he just pressed himself on me and that's I don't know if I can do it. I think it might puke. Gemma told me that Al-Fayed raped her.

And at that point, I just cried. And he got up and quite aggressively said to me, go in there and wash yourself, and pointed to the bathroom. So I got up, I went into the bathroom, and I washed myself, as I was told to. Al-Fayed leaves. Gemma is left shaking. She is utterly isolated. She's in this vast house with secure grounds in the foreign country. She's been driven here, so she doesn't quite know where she is. She would try phoning someone, but Gemma's come from Al-Fayed's executive suite,

where she's heard the phones are tapped. There's a culture of fear and silence throughout the organisation. So she feels she can't turn to anyone in Villa Windsor. And even if she could somehow get out, then what? Even the thought of running to the local police station terrified me because we'd had a police escort. I thought they were all on his side. What would you do in that situation

if you're in a huge, scary house, surrounded by security, fenced in, and that's happened? What do you do? You've got nowhere to go. The accounts of Al-Fayed's methods are disturbingly consistent. Isolate and attack. Isolate and attack. Remember, all of these women have been sold the promise

of a great professional opportunity. None of them could have predicted this. We pulled up to the gate, big tall gates going into the driveway of the house. Sarah is the Harrods Human Resources Manager, who for years had tried her best to protect young female employees from Al-Fayed. I left my bags in the car, but I had my winter coat on and my handbag and I came in. She's been summoned to Villa Windsor on a Friday night, ostensibly to talk about the chefs they're set to interview in Paris the following day.

And I was taken upstairs and taken into the salon. And the door closed. And Mr. Mohamed was there. And he was dressed in a sort of silky, sort of dressing gown, cum, smoking jacket type affair. And I remember again thinking that was ironic because he didn't like smoking. I'll fire the officer a drink.

I'll have one, she thinks, then I want to get out of here. She tries to talk about work, but he waves it away. You will stay with me tonight, he says. You will stay with your number one boyfriend. I am your number one boyfriend. So I said, I don't think we are going to do that. She stands up as if to leave. He stands to get another drink from the bar by a doorway. He took my right wrist and he pulled me through that doorway and it was a bedroom and there was a bed. And he pushed me in and onto the bed and then put his, I think his right leg over my hip so that I couldn't move and held both my wrists. Sarah's in full panic mode. And the only thing I could think of was his

horror of all things dirty. She's come to learn in her years at Harrods that Al-Fayed is a germophobe. She tells him. We can't do this because I'm hot, I'm sweaty, I've been travelling, I'm dirty, I need to have a shower. And he released his grip and I kind of slid from underneath him onto the floor and then stood up and said I need to go and he said yes yes you go you have a shower then you come back. One thought fills her head. Get as far from our fired as possible. She leaves the salon looking for a way out. Terrified, she's greeted by a member of the villa staff, who instead shows her to a bedroom. I closed the door. I immediately

tried to see if there was a lock and there was no lock. She wedges a chair under the door handle and looks for another exit. She's desperate, but there's no fire escape. Nothing. So I turned the shower on so it sounded like I was showering to sort of cover any noise I might be making. And I was flustered, one ear on the door thinking he might be coming through at any minute.

She swaps the chair behind the door for a table, then puts the chair on top of it, then her bag. He'd have to make a hell of a noise to get through that. Next, she needs to think. She grabs one of the cigarettes she got in duty-free on her way to Paris. She's just about to light it when she spots a smoke detector in the ceiling. So I opened the window and I climbed out into this small gap to have a cigarette to try and calm my nerves and think about how I was going to get out of the situation.

There's no balcony. Sarah is now two stories up on a narrow ledge overlooking the darkened grounds of Villa Windsor. She's hoping there might be a tree close enough to climb to. But no. But as I was having my cigarette, I saw somebody lighting a cigarette down in the bushes. And I took a drag of my cigarette and a voice came up saying, I can see you.

And it was the voice of one of his close security team that I knew. And I said, I can see you too. And he said, are you OK? And I said, no, I'm not. But I will be when I can get out of here. And he then said, I won't tell if you won't tell. She butts out the cigarette against the stone ledge and climbs back inside.

I put every item of clothing on that I had so that if I slept through the night and he tried to come in, it would take him a lot longer to get to what he wanted. Then I might have a chance to get away. Sarah lies awake thinking, if I can just get through this. Eventually, dawn breaks. Now she just needs to get out.

Alfaid is eating breakfast in the dining room. Sarah stands there, suitcase packed, car ordered, flight moved up. She's leaving. Now. Sit down, he says. Let's have breakfast. Then we can fly down to Saint-Tropez and have a nice weekend. It's like nothing's happened. And I said, no, I'm leaving.

I have got to go home to my boyfriend and he said who is this guy I am your number one boyfriend he started to get really quite angry and he said if you go you will not work for me again and I said that's ok and I turned around

and I walked Sarah walks out of the room And I said, that's OK. And I turned around and I walked. Sarah walks out of the room, out of Villa Windsor, and, in her mind at least, out of her career with Harrods. She's determined. Her time with Mohamed Al-Fayed is over. Like Sarah, Gemma's experience at Villa Windsor is the last straw. The incident in Paris was the turning point for me. As soon as I got home, that was it. I got back to the safety of my house

and I made the decision I wasn't going back. house and I made the decision I wasn't going back. But Gemma, Sarah and the other women who left underestimated Al-Fayed's reach. They're about to find out that quitting is not the same thing as being free. One of the PAs said, I've got Mohammed for you. And boom, there he was on the phone going, if you talk about me, all you say is good things. How the hell does he know where I work? It was scary. It made me feel paranoid. Is someone following me? That's next time on World of Secrets. You've been listening to episode three of season four of World of Secrets, Al-Fayed, Predator at Harrods. It's a long-form audio production for BBC World Service. It's presented by me, Shaima Khalil.

And me, Cassie Cornish-Trestrail. The producers are Neil Rizal and Sally Abrahams. The series editor is Matt Willis. Special thanks to series consultant Keaton Stone and director Erica Gornall. If you've been affected by any of the issues in this series, please contact support organisations in your own country. For a list of organisations in the UK that can provide support for survivors of sexual abuse, go to bbc.co.uk forward slash action line. And if you haven't already, check out our previous three seasons.

For just as long as Hollywood has been Tinseltown, there have been suspicions about what lurks behind the glitz and glamour. Concerns about radical propaganda in the motion pictures. And for a while, those suspicions grew into something much bigger and much darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or darker. Are you a member of the Communist Party? Or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party? I'm Una Chaplin, and this is Hollywood Exiles. It's about a battle for the political soul of America, and the battlefield was Hollywood.

All episodes of Hollywood Exiles, from the BBC World Service and CBC are available now. Search for Hollywood Exiles wherever you get your podcasts.