Dodi Al Fayed's Ex-Girlfriend Kelly Fisher Sued Him Days Before His Death
Season five of The Crown introduces viewers to Dodi Al Fayed, who tragically died alongside Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997, and part one of season six brings their story to its conclusion.
However, it's unclear how serious the two were: Princess Diana had just broken up with Hasnat Khan, a British Pakistani heart surgeon whom she reportedly called the "love of her life." Fayed, too, was previously linked to California model Kelly Fisher, and Fisher said that the two were engaged when he started courting Diana. Fisher features in season six, and learns about Dodi's relationship with Diana from the media.
Here's everything you need to know about Kelly Fisher, who is portrayed by actor Erin Richards, in The Crown.
She was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky.
"I lived in Kentucky until I was about eight years old," she told Aiken Women in 2014. "My father's work as the vice president of an international company had us relocating often." While living in Toronto, Ontario at age 16 she started modeling. Soon, she was working for Armani, Calvin Klein, and more.
Kelly started dating Dodi Al Fayed in 1996.
The two met in Paris in July 1996. Kelly said they were reportedly engaged when Fayed started dating Princess Diana. In 2008, transcripts of phone calls between Fisher and Fayed were released by the Royal Courts of Justice. "I don't understand how one day we're in love—and then—" Fisher told Fayed. "You are f****** crazy," she said at another point. "We were together the whole time. And you knew it."
In early August 1997, represented by lawyer Gloria Allred, Fisher filed a lawsuit against Fayed, claiming that they were set to be wed on August 9 and they had a contractual agreement.
Per the Los Angeles Times, "The suit contends that Fayed, whose father owns Harrods department store in London and the Ritz Hotel in Paris, offered Fisher $500,000 to scale back her modeling career in America and move to Paris so she could spend more time with him. Fayed told her his family was embarrassed that his fiancee worked, the suit claims." The lawsuit sought the remaining $440,000.
"Mr. Fayed needs to take responsibility for the woman that he ‘left at the altar’ and treated with such total disrespect,” Allred said at the press conference. "He threw her love away in a callous way with no regard for her whatsoever."
Her mom, Judith Dunaway, was at the press conference, telling reporters, "No one’s daughter deserves to be treated as my daughter was. Kelly loved him, trusted him and has been treated very cruelly by him. Dodi Fayed should be ashamed." Dunaway also said she gave Fayed her blessing to marry her daughter in November 1996.
At the time, Fayed admitted to knowing her but said they were never engaged.
After the tragic deaths of Fayed and Princess Diana, Fisher withdrew her lawsuit. "Out of respect for the tragedy, and tremendous loss the Fayed family has suffered, she has authorised me as her attorney, to dismiss her lawsuit against Mr Fayed. Although she does have the legal right to pursue the lawsuit against his estate after his death, she has voluntarily chosen not to exercise that right," Allred said on September 1, 1997.
During the inquest into their deaths in 2008, Fisher testified. "It's just quite humiliating to sit here and try to prove to people that someone wanted to marry you, you know," she said. She also shared the tape of the call she had with Fayed in mid-August 1997.
She married Russian pilot Mikhail Movshina.
Fisher and Movshina met in 2007 while on a safari in the Central African Republic. They lived in Paris and the French Alps before settling in Aiken, South Carolina. They have a daughter, Alexandra, who was born in 2011.
"After traveling so much, being close to family is important," Fisher told Aiken Women. "In 2005, my parents retired here [to Aiken] for the beautiful weather and great golf. I had visited them often at Woodside Plantation and loved the small town charm of Aiken. In 2008 I bought a house here as a vacation home. After learning I was pregnant in 2010 we decided to move here."
In 2017, Movshina, who owns Vertical Flight Consulting, joined an around-the-world helicopter trip. "I fly all over – Russia, Europe, Africa, China," he told the Associated Press.
As of 2022, Kelly still lives in Aiken with her daughter.
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