Late Saudi King Fahd's secret wife awarded millions of pounds in court
The 'secret wife' (Palestinian-born Janan Harb) of late King
Fahd of Saudi Arabia has been awarded millions of pounds by the High Court
judge who believed her claim that she had been told she would be looked after
for the rest of her life.
According to her, at the age of 19, she secretly married the
king who ruled from 1982 to 2005 in 1968 when he was still a prince and the
country's interior minister.
The royal family discovered & opposed the marriage
because she was from a Christian family. In a bid to discredit her, was sent
away from Saudi Arabia in 1970 when the family "wrongly" blamed her
for Fahd's methadone addiction.
In June 2003, she was approached by Prince Abdul Aziz, the
son of another of the king's wives, who promised her financial security. At the
time of the meeting, the then king was seriously ill. He agreed to pay her £12m
and transfer two flats in the prestigious Cheyne Walk part of Chelsea to her
ownership, thereby fulfilling his father's wishes.
However, the prince subsequently failed to honor the
agreement and wrote to the court denying the claim. Chancery Division judge Mr
Justice Peter Smith positively sided with Ms Harb after the prince failed to
attend court to give his side of the story, arguing that current monarch King
Salman and his family thought attendance would create "a media
circus".