The path of true love never did run smooth, and once Princess Diana entered the life – and yacht – of Mohammed Al Fayed’s son, Dodi, in the summer of 1997, it was over for Dodi’s rumoured fiancée Kelly Fisher.
The new series of The Crown shows Dodi (played by Khalid Abdalla) being manipulated into a relationship with Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) by his dad, meaning that Fisher (Erin Richards) is tossed aside by the playboy... until we hear that she’s suing him for breaking up with her.
So what really happened between Dodi and Fisher, and did she win the unique legal case against her ex-lover?
The backstory
Kelly Fisher was born in 1962 and spent her early childhood growing up Louisville, Kentucky. By the time she turned 16, she was living in Toronto and working as a model for fashion brands including Calvin Klein and Armani.
The romance
Fisher met Dodi in 1996 in Paris, and the pair started dating. It was reported that the couple then became engaged – Fisher showed off a huge sapphire and diamond engagement ring that Dodi had given her – but a year later, Dodi and Diana had their infamous yachting holiday, where paparazzi captured pictures of them kissing on board. Dodi dumped Fisher, allegedly by phone, on 7 August.
The fall out
Around this time, when the pictures were published all across the world, Fisher took legal action against Dodi. She hired the lawyer Gloria Allred and filed a lawsuit, claiming that their wedding was due to take place on 9 August and stating that they had a contractual agreement.
Fisher was also filing for loss of earnings, as reported by the LA Times at the time: “The suit contends that Fayed offered Fisher $500,000 to scale back her modelling 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.” Fisher hoped to win back the remaining $440,000 that had failed to be given to her.
In a press conference, Allred added: “Mr. Fayed needs to take responsibility for the woman that he ‘left at the altar’ and treated with such total disrespect. He threw her love away in a callous way with no regard for her whatsoever.”
At the time, Dodi admitted to knowing her but said they were never engaged.
However, following the shock deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi in a Paris car crash that occurred just a few weeks after she filed the suit, Fisher dropped the case. Fisher’s lawyer explained in a public statement of the withdrawal: “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.”
What happened next to Fisher?
She was called to give evidence in a 2008 inquest into the couple’s death, where she testified, but said how uncomfortable she found it all: “It’s just quite humiliating to sit here and try to prove to people that someone wanted to marry you, you know.” Transcripts of historical phone calls between her and Dodi were also made available.
Where is Fisher now?
Fisher is no longer a model and is now a property developer. And, she met a pilot called Mikhail Movshina on a safari in Africa in 2007, and later married. She now goes by her married name, Kelly Movshina. The couple live with their daughter in Aitken, South Carolina.
