The youngest son of Mohamed Al Fayed has revealed he ran away to sea to avoid his father’s grip – despite being poised to take over Harrods.
Omar Al Fayed, 37, said he fled to a research ship at the age of just 22 – leaving his billionaire father convinced he had been kidnapped.
He joined the crew of the Heraclitus, a boat that was built in the 1970s by Californian environmentalists, and had carried out research on oceans across the world.
Omar told The Sunday Times: ‘I told him exactly where I was going. I just don’t think he believed me. And I was completely out of touch in the middle of the ocean.’
‘I stuck it out a Harrods for as long as I could. I literally jumped ship. It was not just a cultural upbringing, generational thing.
‘It genuinely was a personal difference in our approach to reality.’
Police now believe Al Fayed, who died last year aged 94, may have raped and abused more than 111 women over nearly four decades.
This would make the billionaire Harrods tycoon one of Britain’s most notorious sex offenders.
Five brave survivors alleged in a BBC documentary that they had to barricade doors with chairs to get away from former Harrods boss Al Fayed.
Former employees said he would fly them to Paris under the guise of a work trip, take away their passports and put them in hotel rooms without locks.
Chilling claims say he monitored them with CCTV in their own homes, phone tapping and he threatened their families if they ever dared to speak out about the abuse.
BBC journalists looking into his predatory history gathered the stories of more than 20 women who said they had been abused by him, and ‘up to 200’ more have come forward since.
Omar, a lifelong environmentalist, has now said he believes business and industry treats the planet like his father treated women.
He also commended the bravery of the women who came forward accusing Al Fayed of sexual assault.
‘I am horrified and deeply concerned by the allegations recently brought to light against my late father,’ he said when the allegations emerged in September.
‘The extent and explicit nature of the allegations are shocking and has thrown into question, the loving memory I had of him’, Sky News reported.
‘How this matter could have been concealed for so long and in so many ways, raises further disturbing questions.’
He said that he loved his father ‘very much’ and he was a ‘wonderful dad’.
But he added ‘that aspect of our relationship… does not blind me from an objective assessment of circumstances’.
He said he stood ‘unequivocally in support of any legitimate investigation into these allegations.
‘I will continue to support the principles of truth, justice, accountability, and fairness, regardless of where that journey may lead. No one is above the law.’
Omar, the youngest of Fayed’s four children with his second wife, Finnish model Heini Wathen, previously conceded that his father was an ‘old-school chauvinist’.
He told friends: ‘Perhaps he was like an older version of Donald Trump.’
Michael Ward, managing director of Harrods, said in a statement that it is clear Al Fayed ‘presided over a toxic culture of secrecy, intimidation, fear of repercussion and sexual misconduct’.
Mr Ward, who worked for Al Fayed for four years, said he was ‘not aware of his criminality and abuse’ and described it as a ‘shameful period in the business’ history’.
He said an independent review was underway into issues arising from the allegations and that he had ‘provided all the information I have to ensure my own conduct can be reviewed alongside that of my colleagues’.
