Dodi made his professional mark as a Hollywood producer. The films he helped finance included the Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire, The World According to Garp and Hook. But for all his notoriety in the movie business, Dodi was unable to alter the fact that he would always be best known, in the lingo of Fleet Street, as "the playboy" from "the House of Harrods." His only marriage, to former model Suzanne Gregard, ended after eight months in 1987. In the past decade he had been linked romantically, if usually briefly, to a lengthy list of beautiful and often famous women. A recent flame, model Kelly Fisher, added to the Dodi lore by holding a press conference in Los Angeles this summer to show off a sapphire ring that she said was an engagement ring and to charge that she had been jilted in favor of Diana. Fisher, who also used the press conference to announce a $440,000 lawsuit for breach of contract and fraud, contended that while Dodi was wooing Diana on his father's yacht in the Mediterranean, he had Fisher hidden away nearby and was begging her to have his child.

The younger Al Fayed was plagued by a reputation for writing bad checks and being casual about paying off debts. He leased a series of mansions in Beverly Hills for rents ranging from $20,000 to $35,000 a month and was sued repeatedly for moving out without paying. He blamed some of the problems on a former merchant seaman named Mohamed Sead, who he said had been impersonating him. The seaman reportedly booked 23 rooms at the Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami in Al Fayed's name and offered film roles to Jodie Foster and Brooke Shields. Dodi said in a court affidavit that "by impersonating me, Sead has caused immeasurable damage to my good name, my reputation [and] my family." But Dodi's spokesman acknowledged before his death that some of the debts and bounced checks were in fact his. Accounts of his own wealth varied, with one report saying he received $100,000 a month from his father.

Despite the elder Al Fayed's wealth, prestigious holdings and good works, he has never managed to be accepted into British society. He has lived in England for 20 years, and the four children of his second marriage are all British citizens. He was a friend of Diana's father, the late Lord Spencer, and employs her stepmother Raine, Countess de Chambrun, as a director of Harrods International, the store's duty-free arm. Al Fayed sponsors the Royal Windsor Horse Show, at which he shares the Queen's box. Still, the British government has for years denied his requests for citizenship without explanation. Al Fayed also deeply resents a 1990 government report criticizing the financing of his takeover of Harrods.