Samira Khashoggi was a Saudi Arabian progressive author, as well as the founder of Al Sharkiah magazine. She was also famous as the mother of  Dodi Al-Fayed, the sister of Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi and the first wife of Egyptian-born businessman and billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed. Samira Khashoggi’s son Dodi was the romantic partner of Diana, Princess of Wales, when they both were killed in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.

Samira Khashoggi: Bio Summary

Samira Khashoggi was born in 1935 in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Her father Muhammad Khashoggi was King Abdulaziz Al Saud’s personal doctor and her mother was Samiha Ahmed. Samira was one of the six children of the couple- After World War II ended, Samira and her siblings-Adnan, Essam, Ahmad, Adil, and Soheir were sent to school in Egypt and their parents eventually made Alexandria their home in order to be closer to their children.

Dodi Fayed’s mother has been married thrice

Dodi Fayed’s mother Samira Khashoggi has been married twice. Mohamed Fayed and Samira Khashoggi married in 1954. The couple first met on the beach in Alexandria through her brother, Saudi billionaire Adnan Khashoggi. Their son Dodi Fayed was born in 1955, and the couple called their marriage quit a year later.

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Samira separated from her husband Mohamed Al Fayed just months after Dodi’s birth and returned to Saudi Arabia. Their marriage lasted for only twice years. Despite the fact that his father had custody of him, Dodi’s mother was still a part of his life.

She married Anas Yassin (also spelled Yaseen) and moved to Beirut shortly after her marriage with Fayed came to an end. Yassin previously served as a Saudi ambassador to the United Nations, India, and Turkey. In 1965, Samira had another child, Jumana Yassin, nicknamed Gigi. Samira remarried for the third time after her husband died in a car accident in 1974, to a Lebanese businessman named Abdel Rahman al-Aseer per Townandcountrymag.

ALSO, READ; Camilla al-Fayed: Who is Dodi Fayed’s Half-sister?

Samira was a writer.

Samira founded the Al Sharkiah magazine dedicated to Arab women. Her daughter Jumana Yassin is now editor-in-chief. Samira also authored numerous books in Arabic under the pseudonym Samirah, Daughter of the Arabian Peninsula. As an author, her books include Wadda’t Amali (Farewell to my Dreams, 1958), Thekrayāt Dām’ah (Tearful Memories, 1963), Wara’ Aldabab (Beyond the Cloud, 1971), Qatrat Min ad-Dumu’ (Teardrops, 1979) and Barīq Aynaik (The Sparkle of Your Eyes). Since 1972, Al Sharkiah has been the leading monthly pan-Arab women’s magazine.

Samira Khashoggi and her son Dodi Fayed were very close

Though Dodi Fayed’s parents ended their marriage when he was very young, he still had a very close connection with his mother. As said earlier, though his father got custody of him, his mother was still part of his life. “He was absolutely devoted to Samira and there was hardly a day he didn’t talk to her from wherever he was,” a friend of Dodi’s revealed. “They’d talk for up to an hour and no matter how beautiful the girl might be he was with at the time, he’d drop her in a second if his mother called. It’s thanks to his mother he has such a sensitive side and is able to understand women so well. That is part of the reason why so many women going through relationship break-ups turn to him.“

ALSO, READ; Who is Jasmine Al-Fayed, Dodi Fayed’s Half-sister?

How did Dodi Fayed’s mother die?

Samira Khashoggi died of a heart attack in 1986 at the age of 51. As said earlier, Dodi was devoted to her mother and it stayed that way till the day she passed away. According to reports, Dodi Fayed even once told a friend: “If it meant giving up everything I have—cars, wealth, and women—I would do it to bring my mother back.“

Dodi “knew how much his mother loved him,” Jumana told Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod in Death of a Princess. “When she died, he collapsed.” According to Samira’s sister Soheir, Dodi did not get enough time to get to her before she died. He traveled to Egypt but could not get there until the next day.

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