The family said in a statement Friday that Al-Fayed died on Wednesday. In recent years, the businessman lived in seclusion in his residence in the English county of Surrey.
Al-Fayed was born in Egypt, in 1966 he became an adviser to one of the richest men in the world, the Sultan of Brunei, and began to build his own business empire. He moved to the UK in 1974 but never received British citizenship.
Together with his brother, he bought the famous Ritz Hotel in Paris in the late 1970s, then in 1985 became the owner of the London department store Harrods. He was also the owner of the English football team Fulham.
After the death of his son, Dodi Al-Fayed spent years investigating the circumstances of the fatal accident. For example, he claimed that Princess Diana and his son were killed by British and French intelligence agencies on the orders of the Queen’s husband, Prince Philip, and in cooperation with the driver Henri Paul, who also died in the crash.