His family say he “passed away peacefully of old age” on Wednesday.
Sky News understands Al Fayed was buried after Friday prayers at London Central Mosque in Regent’s Park.
The Egyptian-born businessman was best known as a former owner of the Harrods department store and Fulham football club in London.
Al Fayed’s son, the film producer Dodi Fayed, and Princess Diana died on 31 August 1997 when their car crashed in a road tunnel in Paris as they tried to outrun paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.
The news of Al Fayed’s passing comes just one day after the 26th anniversary of his son’s death.
He fought a long campaign after their deaths, alleging the crash was not an accident and that it had been orchestrated by the British security services.
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However, French police concluded it was an accident, caused in part by speeding and by the high alcohol level in driver Henri Paul’s blood. A British police investigation concurred.
Image: Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana. Pic: AP
His family said in a statement: “Mrs Mohamed Al Fayed, her children and grandchildren wish to confirm that her beloved husband, their father and their grandfather, Mohamed, has passed away peacefully of old age on Wednesday 30 August, 2023.
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“He enjoyed a long and fulfilled retirement surrounded by his loved ones. The family have asked for their privacy to be respected at this time.”
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He is survived by his second wife, Finnish former model Heidi Wathen, and their four children – Jasmine, Karim, Camilla and Omar.
Al Fayed sold Harrods to Qatar Holdings in May 2010.
Three years later, he also sold Fulham FC, to the US businessman Shahid Khan.
The club paid tribute to the businessman on Friday.
His successor as owner, Mr Khan, said: “On behalf of everyone at Fulham Football Club, I send my sincere condolences to the family and friends of Mohamed Al Fayed upon the news of his passing at age 94.
“The story of Fulham cannot be told without a chapter on the positive impact of Al Fayed as chairman.
“His legacy will be remembered for our promotion to the Premier League, a Europa League Final, and moments of magic by players and teams alike.
“I always enjoyed my time with Al Fayed, who was wise, colourful and committed to Fulham, and I am forever grateful for his trust in me to succeed him as chairman in 2013.
“I join our supporters around the world in celebrating the memory of Mohamed Al Fayed, whose legacy will always be at the heart of our tradition at Fulham Football Club.”
Born in Alexandria in 1929, Al Fayed began his career selling fizzy drinks and then worked as a sewing machine salesman.
Image: From sewing machine salesman to billionaire businessman
He built his family’s fortune in real estate, shipping and construction, first in the Middle East and then in Europe.
After moving to London in the 1960s, Al Fayed soon became a friend of royals and high society and purchased high-profile businesses such as the Ritz Hotel in Paris in 1979 and Harrods in 1985.
He later bought Fulham in 1997 for £6.25m.
The Sunday Times Rich List 2021 reported Al Fayed and his family were worth around £1.7bn.
He became a friend of Princess Diana through his sponsorship of charities and events attended by Royal Family members.
He invited the princess, along with Prince William and Prince Harry, to holiday on his yacht in the summer of 1997.
Diana – who was divorced from Charles in 1992 – and Dodi were pictured together in St Tropez, sparking rumours of romance.
Image: Queen Elizabeth II with Mohamed Fayed. Pic: Shutterstock
The billionaire’s relationship with the Royal Family was recently depicted in season five of The Crown, where Al Fayed, played by Salim Daw, was seen getting to know Diana.
The sixth series of the show, set to be released this autumn, will cover Dodi and Diana’s fatal crash.
Al Fayed was regularly shrouded in controversy.
He spent 10 years trying to prove Diana and his son Dodi were murdered.
Unsupported by any evidence, according to the inquest into Diana’s death, he claimed that she was bearing Dodi’s child and accused Prince Philip, the Queen’s husband, of ordering Britain’s security services to kill her to stop her from marrying a Muslim and having his baby.
His takeover of Harrods sparked one of Britain’s most bitter business feuds, while in 1994 he caused a scandal with the disclosure that he had paid politicians to ask questions on his behalf in parliament.
He fell out with the British government over its refusal to grant him citizenship of the country that was his home for decades and often threatened to move to France, which gave him the Legion of Honour, its highest civilian award.
He has also been accused of sexual harassment by several former Harrods employees.
Image: He bought Fulham FC in 1997
At Fulham, he erected a larger-than-life, sequined statue of Michael Jackson outside Craven Cottage even though the singer only attended one match.
When people complained, he said: “If some stupid fans don’t understand or appreciate such a gift, they can go to hell.”
He also installed a bronze memorial statue of Diana and Dodi dancing beneath the wings of an albatross at Harrods.
Even his name and date of birth were contentious.
He maintained he was born in 1933 but a British government inquiry into the Harrods takeover said 1929.
He also added the al to his name when he moved to the UK, leading the satirical magazine Private Eye to nickname him the “Phoney Pharaoh”.
The Ukrainian president said the meeting ahead of Pope Francis’s funeral could end up being “historic.” Hours later, Mr Trump questioned Vladimir Putin’s appetite for peace in a Truth Social post.
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2:49
From Saturday: Trump meets Zelenskyy at funeral
Speaking before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Mr Trump again said the meeting went well, and that the Ukrainianleader was “calmer”.
“I think he understands the picture, I think he wants to make a deal,” he said, before turning to Mr Putin and Russia.
“I want him to stop shooting, sit down and sign a deal,” the US president said, adding he was “very disappointed that they did the bombing of those places (including Kyiv, where nine people were killed in a Russian airstrike on Friday) after discussions”.
However, Mr Trump said he thinks Mr Zelenskyy is ready to give up Crimea, which the Ukrainian leader has repeatedly said he would refuse to do.
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He added that “we’ll see what happens in the next few days” and said “don’t talk to me about Crimea, talk to Obama and Biden about Crimea”.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, while Barack Obama was president.
Meanwhile, US secretary of state Marco Rubio told Sky’s US partner network NBC News that a peace deal to end the war was “closer in general than they’ve been any time in the last three years, but it’s still not there”.
“If this was an easy war to end, it would have been ended by someone else a long time ago,” he added on the Meet the Press show.
It comes after North Korea confirmed it had deployed troops to fight for Russia, months after Ukraine and Western officials said its forces were in Europe.
State media outlet KCNA reported North Korean soldiers made an “important contribution” to expelling Ukrainian forces from Russian territory, likely to be the Kursk region.
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KCNA said leader Kim Jong Un made the decision to deploy troops to Russia and notified Moscow, and quoted him as saying: “They who fought for justice are all heroes and representatives of the honour of the motherland.”
It also quoted the country’s ruling Workers’ Party as saying the end of the battle to liberate Kursk showed the “highest strategic level of the firm militant friendship” between North Korea and Russia.
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1:26
From June 2024: Putin drives Kim around in luxury limo during state visit
The North Korean leader promised at the time “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine”.
At least 40 people have been killed and several hundred more injured after an explosion and fire at Iran’s largest port, according to state media.
The blast, at the Shahid Rajaei container hub near the southern city of Bandar Abbas, happened on Saturday as Iran held a third round of talks with the US in Oman about Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Shipping containers burned, goods inside were badly damaged and the explosion was so powerful that windows several miles away were shattered, reports said.
Image: Iranian Red Crescent rescuers work at the site of the blast. Pic: Reuters
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0:26
The blast at the Shahid Rajaei port happened as Iran and the US met for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Helicopters and aircraft dumped water from the air on the blaze and by Sunday afternoon it was 90% extinguished, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society told state media.
Officials said port activities had resumed in unaffected parts of Shahid Rajaei.
Out of the 752 people who had received treatment for their injuries, 190 were still being treated in medical centres on Sunday, according to Iran’s crisis management organisation.
Chemicals at the port were suspected to have worsened the blast, but the exact cause of the explosion was not clear.
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Iran’s defence ministry denied international media reports that the explosion may be connected to the mishandling of solid fuel used for missiles.
The reports were “aligned with enemy psyops [psychological operations]”, according to a ministry spokesperson, who told state TV the blast-hit area did not contain any military cargo.
Image: Firefighters work to extinguish the blaze. Pic: AP
According to the Associated Press, British security company Ambrey said that the port in March received sodium perchlorate, which is used to propel ballistic missiles and the mishandling of which could have led to the explosion.
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The Financial Times previously reported two Iranian vessels had shipped from China enough of the ingredient to propel up to 260 mid-range missiles.
It was reportedly to help Tehran replenish stocks after its missile attacks on Israel in 2024.
Iran’s military has sought to deny the delivery of sodium perchlorate from China.
Iran’s state-run Irna news agency reported on Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed several emergency aircraft to Bandar Abbas to provide help.
Anna and Irene have already been queuing for an hour or so, and they know they have a long wait still to come.
“Two hours, three hours, ten hours – what does it matter?” says Irena. “This is about eternity.”
They have come to Rome from Slovenia, Catholics who felt “Papa Francis would have wanted us to be here”.
Image: People take photos of the grave of late Pope Francis inside St. Mary Major Basilica. Pic: AP/Andrew Medichini
Image: A single white rose left on the tomb. Pic: Vatican
And under the sun outside Santa Maria Maggiore, they are awaiting the opportunity to visit his tomb.
Francis, says Irena, “was like a rainbow” who lit up the world. Anna nods along: “We are so happy to be here.”
The Pope’s tomb has become a new source of pilgrimage.
More than 30,000 people came to view it during the first morning after the Pope’s funeral, the queue snaking from the front of the mighty basilica and then up and down across the square at the back.
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Some were curious visitors, others were devout followers – priests and nuns mixing in the queue with tourists and devoted locals.
All of these admired Francis; a very few actually knew him.
Father Alessandro Masseroni is a deacon who came to Rome to train to become a priest. On his phone, he shows me a photo of him and Francis, with the Pope offering words of encouragement.
Image: Father Alessandro Masseroni meeting the Pope
He says: “I had the honour to serve Pope Francis and to talk to him many times and it was a special experience. I understand why he was so loved by all the people – he was simple and direct.
“He was sunny. St Francis was his role model and when I saw the first picture of the Pope’s tomb, the first thing I thought was of the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.
“Pope Francis will leave a legacy – it doesn’t end with his death but will continue.”
Image: People attend the funeral of Pope Francis. Pic: Reuters/Yara Nardi
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0:38
Video shows Pope’s tomb
What are your emotions now, as you wait to visit his tomb, I ask. Father Alessandro pauses and smiles.
“Many emotions of course, but mainly, I think… thankfulness.”
That has been a recurring aspect among so many of the people we have met in Rome over the past week – the sense that sadness for Francis’s death is outweighed by the sense that his was a life that should be celebrated.
Volodymyr Borysyak flew in from London on the morning of the Pope’s funeral to make his third pilgrimage to Rome.
Barely had he arrived than his phone was stolen, a crime he responded to by praying for the thief.
Volodymyr is a refugee from western Ukraine who worries that his home country’s plight is being forgotten by some of the world.
Now, the Pope who inspired him has died.
You might imagine that he would be resentful and angry. Instead, he is full of smiles.
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7:51
The farewell to Pope Francis
“We are happy to be the pilgrims of the world and this is a special day,” he tells me. “I know the pope used to pray in this basilica so that is why we will stay so long here to visit Santa Maria Maggiore.
“I think Pope Francis was, is and will be the pope for the world, because of the mercy of his heart and his love for everybody.”