A former showbiz reporter has told how the late Harrods owner Mohammed al-Fayed was flirtatious during a meeting and offered to lend her £20,000 but lost interest after she declined.
Leigh Purves was commenting on claims that al-Fayed raped five women and sexually assaulted many more during his time as boss of the luxury London department store.
She told GB News: “I worked as a showbiz reporter in the early 2000s, some people did hear certain rumours at the time, and yet some people are very surprised by these latest accusations…
“There were rumours before my first meeting with Mr al-Fayed at the time that he perhaps liked ladies, he was a bit of a ladies man. He was quite flirtatious.
“I made sure that in my first meeting with him, it was at the offices of Harrods. There was a glass partition with armed bodyguards behind throughout my first cup of tea with Mohamed al-Fayed.
“It was extremely nerve-wracking and very intimidating. However, you have to remember that I was used to working in these circles, perhaps not quite as high profile as Mohamed al-Fayed, but I was used to holding people in power to account, and obviously meeting the rich and famous.
“Whether that was businessmen or socialists or Hollywood actors, that was part of my job. However, it was unnerving, it was intimidating, and I made sure that people knew where I was, how long I’d be. I was on the phone to my sister as soon as I left.
“I found him extremely polite. He was extremely charming to me. I opened up about a lot of things. I wanted to know how he felt about the Royal Family and the British media.
“Also I wanted to try and get him on board to make a TV documentary, a behind the scenes one about Harrods which at the time would have been explosive television.
“Obviously, we didn’t know about the recent claims at that time…we did have a bit of a friendship. I confided in him.
“I laughed about the prices of buying property in London. He offered to lend me £20,000 pounds to help me get my foot on the ladder and buy a flat in London.
“This was an offer that I very politely but firmly declined and there was a definite shift in the mood after that particular refusal on my part.
“From then, we had various other meetings. I was trying to write some academic papers about his relationship with the British media and the Royal Family, but eventually he phased me out.”
She added: “Every time I met him, I did ask and insist that those meetings over tea would be at Harrods or in a public space, even in one of the restaurants at Harrods, the cafes.
“I’m not entirely sure that was what he perhaps wanted, I think there were several occasions where it was suggested we’d meet somewhere else, but I was always very adamant it had to be in an open place and a public place, even if it was with armed bodyguards meters away.
“One of the other things that you have to remember at this time, I was working for a tabloid newspaper so I think from that point of view, from his point of view, I myself was quite well connected at the time.
“Any sort of underhand dalliance with a reporter, a news reporter, there’s an element of risk there that perhaps wasn’t there or as obvious to him when it came to other people with whom he had certain other powers over.”
