Dodi El-Fayed: The Man Behind Princess Diana’s Tragic Love Affair

In 1997, the world was left in shock after the tragic deaths of Princess Diana, her lover Dodi El-Fayed, and their driver Henry Paul in a car crash in Paris.

Diana's private secretary has now claimed that the princess wasn't in love with Dodi and just wanted a fun summer on his yacht.

But who was Dodi El-Fayed, and what led to his relationship with the People's Princess?

Dodi El-Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1955, the oldest son of former Harrods owner and billionaire Mohamed El-Fayed.

His mother was Samira Khashoggi, sister of Saudi Arabian born billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, and his dad also owned Fulham Football Club and the Hotel Ritz in Paris.

Dodi attended schools in Paris, the exclusive La Rosie in Switzerland, and also had a brief stint at Sandhurst Military Academy, which Princess William and Harry also attended.

He split his time between the Khashoggi homes in Paris, the Riviera, and Cairo and his father's home in Alexandria, Egypt.

When he was 15, Dodi moved to London and became a familiar face on the nightclub scene.

He worked as a junior officer in the United Arab Emirates Air Force, stationed in London, but he soon moved into the film industry, producing films such as Chariots of Fire and The Scarlet Letter.

As Dodi El-Fayed married, the playboy was linked to a string of famous women, including rumors he dated actresses Brooke Shields, Winona Ryder, and Nancy Sinatra.

He married model Suzanne Gregard in 1986, but they divorced after just eight months together.

In 1997, he got engaged to American model Kelly Fisher and bought a house in Malibu for themselves using money from his dad.

She later claimed Dodi had dumped her for Princess Diana and tried suing him for $500,000 because she said she had sacrificed her modeling career to marry him.

The lawsuit was later dropped out of respect for Dodi's family after he and Diana died in the car crash.

The pair had first met at a 1986 polo match in Windsor while Diana was still married to Prince Charles, although nothing came from the exchange.

In the summer of 1997, Dodi invited Diana and William and Harry to spend time on a yacht in the south of France.

She later returned to the ship in August without her sons, and a photo of the pair kissing made headlines around the world.

The lovers spent time in the south of France and Sardinia before flying to Paris where they later died.

The summer in 1997 saw Princess Diana become the focus of relentless media attention after she embarked on a relationship with Dodi.

On August 31, 1997, after a dinner at Mohamed El-Fayed's Ritz Hotel in Paris, the pair were hounded by French paparazzi on motorbikes as they drove through the Pont de l'Alma tunnel.

They crashed into a pillar.

Princess Diana, Dodi, and driver Henry Paul were all killed in the horror smash, but bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived.

An inquest held in London concluded in 2008 that the princess had been unlawfully killed, blaming the crash on grossly negligent driving by Paul and the pursuing paparazzi.

Paul was speeding and over the drink drive limit at the time of the smash.

A new book about Dodi El-Fayed sheds light on his wild partying days at Studio 54, where he was a regular with Lisa Minnelli and Robin Williams.

The book alleges that Dodi loved Kool-Aids, good quality coke, and hot women and that the two men regularly went to illegal clubs at 5 am in downtown New York with a group dubbed the Dawn Patrol, that is said to have included Lisa Minnelli, Rick James, and Joe Cocker, Tony Curtis, Jack Lemon, and Robin Williams.

Michael Gibbons, Diana's private secretary, has now revealed that Diana's relationship with Dodi would only have lasted a few more weeks had they both not died in the Paris car crash.

Diana's final month included two cruises on Mohamed El-Fayed's yacht, sparking rumors that she was pregnant and about to announce plans to marry Dodi.

However, Gibbons claims that Diana never mentioned a wedding and was just enjoying herself with Dodi superficially.

In conclusion, Dodi El-Fayed was a complex character who lived a life of luxury and excess.

His relationship with Princess Diana was short-lived, but it remains one of the most talked-about love affairs in history.

While some claim that Diana was in love with Dodi, others believe that she was just having fun and enjoying the attention.

Regardless of the truth, their tragic deaths will forever be remembered as one of the biggest losses in modern history.