Diana and Dodi Statue Unveiled; D&D dolls for sale on eBay (2005)

[Osipi]

I find the display to be, to me, kind of tacky and makes me shake my head on how someone could build up a relationship with such a memorial that lasted for such a short amount of time.

Some folks shop for food for as long as Diana and Dodi's relationship was.

I do understand that Mr. Al Fayed lost his son and was in deep mourning and that's very understandable but I think the relationship between Diana and Dodi and how serious it was had to be a fragment of his imagination.

 

[Dman]

I find the display to be, to me, kind of tacky and makes me shake my head on how someone could build up a relationship with such a memorial that lasted for such a short amount of time.

Some folks shop for food for as long as Diana and Dodi's relationship was.

I do understand that Mr. Al Fayed lost his son and was in deep mourning and that's very understandable but I think the relationship between Diana and Dodi and how serious it was had to be a fragment of his imagination.

Yeah, I can totally understand that he lost his son in the most tragic way and want to build a memorial to him and their friend, Diana. I think he made up their relationship though. He tried his best to set them up too.

 

[Curryong]

It would have been a triumph for Mr Al Fayed had his son's relationship with Diana lasted and become serious, a sweet revenge against the British establishment that so decisively rejected him.

However, I don't believe that would have happened in a million years. I think Diana was fond of Dodi but had no intention of getting herself deeply involved with him so soon after the love affair with Hasnet. It was a pleasant summer romance to her in my opinion, nothing more, nothing less.

 

[Denville]

hard to say how logn the romance would have lasted.
But no matter how much one sympathises with M AL Fayed, it is hard to excuse the many ridiculous things he has said about Diana, the RF, her family etc.

 

[Denville]

I think it is possible that Diana was considering Dodi as a husband.. some fo her behaviour was clearly aimed at boht Chalrles and Hasnat, tryring to show them she had a new boyfriend. And Dodi was a nice guy if stupid... former girlfriends seem to have found him pleasant and good natured.. but his aimlessness and lack of ability to even pay his bills, or hold down some kind fo "work" probably put them off.
And his family was very rich so Diana may have considered marrying him, to secure a place as someone's wife, with wealth enough to do her charity work, travel, avoid the coldness of the British upper class and RF towards her..
Mabye she felt that with Doidi, she could have a hosuse in America, but be able to vist her boys frequently, maybe have another baby, be part of the Fayed family.. and have a soldi backing of wealth if she wanted to do charity work still.
MAF would have probably been willing to back her in setting up a Diana foundation.. or something like that and would have been delighted to have secured a former princess for his sons' wife.
However Dodi was an amiable lightweight, and had had a coke habit, and was IIRC divorced already.. plus he had a girlfriend. So I hope that Diana as she spent time with him would have realised that he was hardly likely to be much of a help in her charity work or her desire to be seen as a serious individual, and that it was better to end the relationship when their summer holiday ended.
If she had married him, I can't but believe that in a few years, there would have been another divorce, due to his being so aimless and disorganised and tiresome, or his affair with another woman. And I would not wish something like that fro her..

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

If they married the we would have had Lady Diana Al Fayed for two decades. Hard to imagine.

 

[Dee Anna]

According to one Anglican priest Diana had broached the possibility of him carrying out a mixed religion wedding ceremony shortly before she died.

Princess Diana asked priest if she could wed Muslim boyfriend Dodi Fayed | Royal | News | Express.co.uk

 

[Mirabel]

According to one Anglican priest Diana had broached the possibility of him carrying out a mixed religion wedding ceremony shortly before she died.

Princess Diana asked priest if she could wed Muslim boyfriend Dodi Fayed | Royal | News | Express.co.uk

I don't believe Diana had any serious intention of marrying Dodi.
It was one thing to have a fling with him in a show of defiance to the BRF, but quite another to be married to him.

Diana knew his reputation; she had to know that she'd be a laughingstock if she ever married him.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

I don't believe Diana had any serious intention of marrying Dodi.
It was one thing to have a fling with him in a show of defiance to the BRF, but quite another to be married to him.

Diana knew his reputation; she had to know that she'd be a laughingstock if she ever married him.

Well, Princess Caroline of Hannover married a playboy as well (as he was known then): Philippe Junot. (Of course, like in Dodi's case, reality was that Junot was a well-to-do businessman). But I cite this example to state that we will never know if Diana, Princess of Wales indeed had the intention to marry "playboy" Dodi.

Besides affairs of the heart, Dodi of course could provide her all the wealth to continue the very expensive lifestyle she was used to.

 

[Moonmaiden23]

I don't believe Diana would have married Dodi either. Depending on who you believe she was still deeply in love with her former husband and/or with Hasnat Khan.

I think she was fond of Dodi and flattered by his obvious adoration of her, but everything he had right down to his cellphone was bought and paid for by his father Mohammed, who engineered his "romance" with the Princess and would have doubtless continued to pull the strings if Diana had been silly enough to wed him.

Poor sweet, not very bright Dodi. RIP.

ETA: The statues are just hideous, imo.

 

[Mirabel]

Well, Princess Caroline of Hannover married a playboy as well (as he was known then): Philippe Junot. (Of course, like in Dodi's case, reality was that Junot was a well-to-do businessman). But I cite this example to state that we will never know if Diana, Princess of Wales indeed had the intention to marry "playboy" Dodi.

Besides affairs of the heart, Dodi of course could provide her all the wealth to continue the very expensive lifestyle she was used to.

I think the reality was somewhat different: Dodi was a known heroin user and a womanizer supported by his father, who then called all the shots.
Dodi also had a reputation for stiffing people when the bills came due.
He may have been well-to-do, thanks to his father, but I don't believe he was much of a businessman.

As for Caroline, her parents were opposed to the match, but she was very young and insisted. It didn't last (which anyone might have foreseen).
I read somewhere that Junot married her because someone told him it would never be permitted, and he took that as a challenge! Nice.

 

[Dee Anna]

I don't believe Diana had any serious intention of marrying Dodi.
It was one thing to have a fling with him in a show of defiance to the BRF, but quite another to be married to him.

Diana knew his reputation; she had to know that she'd be a laughingstock if she ever married him.

We'll never know. ?

This was just one person's experience of a conversation with Diana on the topic of a possible mixed marriage that may or may not take place.

 

[Denville]

If she was so bothtered about his reputation why date him?
I have never heard that he was a heroin user, cocaine yes but not Heroin. He was bad with money, cleary and had no fixed occupation... so its HOPEFUL that she would have grown tired of his messy lifestyle and dropped him..

 

[Osipi]

I've read that Diana did have a conversation with a clergy of the CoE in regards to marrying a Muslim but it wasn't Dodi she had in mind, it was Hasnat Khan.

Diana and Dodi really didn't know each other for very long. Certainly not long enough to be actually contemplating marriage. There were two vacations that summer. One Diana and her boys had with the Al-Fayed family and then the vacation with just Diana and Dodi which ended with the tragedy in Paris.

Dodi was summoned by his father to be present for the family vacation and of course what Daddy wanted, Dodi did. Dodi also had his fiance, Kelly Fisher, stashed away nearby on another Al-Fayed yacht. They had a tentative wedding date set for August 9th of that year.

I think the story of the Diana/Dodi romance is pretty much completely told in this link called Two Ladies, Two Yachts and a Billionaire from Vanity Fair.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/05/dunne200805

 

[Pranter]

According to one Anglican priest Diana had broached the possibility of him carrying out a mixed religion wedding ceremony shortly before she died.

Princess Diana asked priest if she could wed Muslim boyfriend Dodi Fayed | Royal | News | Express.co.uk

If she was going to wed any Muslim it would of been Hasnat Khan.


LaRae

 

[Mirabel]

If she was going to wed any Muslim it would of been Hasnat Khan.


LaRae

Is it true that Diana had more or less been cut off by most of the British aristocracy?

Or was she beginning to prefer celeb circles?

 

[Osipi]

From the article I just posted a bit ago, it seemed like the upper elite aristocracy weekends and such were pretty much a no go for Diana at the time for the reason being the publicity it would generate.

The upper aristocratic class sets big store on being close to the crown and the royal family and to be seen to fraternize with someone that was dead set to bring down the monarchy would reflect on them. So, I imagine Diana was pretty much frozen out at the time. Much like Al-Fayed always had been. Ironic isn't it?

 

[Denville]

I don't think she was entirely "frozen out" but a lot of the upper crust where Charles' friends.. and so she wasn't going to be socialilsing with them. Her onw friends were upper class - her older ones.. but she did at times fall out with some of them. however I think she remained close to her flatmates all her life.
But yes there were issues about security and press attention, that I think she was tempted by offers from celebrities who could give her a holiday in greater privacy in America say, than if she went to a friend's country house in England.
and she may have felt flattered by the attention of celebs, not all of whom were "vulgar people who would sell her out"..
But one reason I think she was pleased to be invited by the Khans was that they were friendly with her father and stepmother and they were rich enough to give her a comfortable holiday with as much press exposure as she wanted but not so much that she was harassed. At least in theory. In practice of course Dodi's security was messy, and MAF was keen on its being known that she was holidaying with him and dating his son. and Diana colluded in this to get it out to Khan that she had a new lovesr and also to get the press's attention away from Charles having a birthday party for Camilla

 

[M. Payton]

Let go of the past and relive it daily it seems.......sad!
My apologizes to the mods and everyone for my rant on a matter that is long been a non-issue.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

Is it true that Diana had more or less been cut off by most of the British aristocracy?

Or was she beginning to prefer celeb circles?

I don't think so but of course the aristocracy was (and is) close to the Crown and naturally there will be a distance when someone left "the enclosure" and becomes a sort of outsider.

At the other had: Diana seems to have loathed life at Althorp, life at the royal palaces, the holidays at Balmoral, the weekends at Windsor, she gave the impression to prefer to be in Swinging London, to go out and about with celebbies and to be the hottest ticket in town. So my guess is that Diana could not bother at all to have tea with the Earl and Countess of Caernarvon, or to have a fishing-weekend with the Duke and Duchess of Westminster. We can almost hear her yawning by the thought...

 

[Sun Lion]

Daily Mail Online reporting the memorial has now been removed from Harrods and is with Dodi's father.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbi...Diana-Dodi-statue-finally-leaves-Harrods.html

 

[O-H Anglophile]

That's good news. A much better place for it.

 

[Tsaritsa]

May it now rest in peace.

 

[Osipi]

From the very beginning I always thought it should rest in pieces too.