Jeffrey Epstein knew where Natalie was at all times. A model, she had been introduced to the financier by a contact in the fashion industry when she was just 17 and quickly fell under his control.
“Jeffrey would keep track of where I was — say I’m in Spain, or I’m in Germany or London or Paris. He’d always know,” said Natalie, who has been anonymised to protect her identity.
The message she received from Epstein’s assistant to her pager in the summer of 1997 was no different to countless others she had received during her years in the sex offender’s orbit: “You might have a good opportunity here, this guy is very influential. You should meet him.”
The “guy”, it would turn out, wasMohamed Al Fayed, who at the time was the respected boss of the Harrods department store in London and the Ritz Paris hotel.
It is widely known thatEpstein trafficked womento high-profile and powerful associates, but the suggestion that the circle may have included Al Fayed — who is accused of running his own abuse ring spanning the UK and France — has never been reported before.
“Mohamed”, Epstein’s assistant told Natalie, was on his yacht docked in Saint-Tropez, where she was told to meet him. Natalie was on a catalogue shoot in another European location when she hastily changed her plans to head to the nearest airport.
“Everything with Epstein was under the disguise of ‘Oh, this person can help your career’,” Natalie said. “He’d tell me he knew people in the modelling circle, he knew photographers, he knew some really influential people.”
Natalie, who comes from a country where Al Fayed is not a household name, instantly recognised the former Harrods boss, who died in 2023, from a photograph she came across in an online news story last November. It prompted her to come forward.
“I was one thousand per cent sure it was him when I saw his picture,” she said.
A source said Al Fayed probably met Epstein throughthe Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, a brother-in-law of the late Egyptian businessman who is reported to have hired Epstein to recover money for him in the 1980s. Khashoggi, who died in 2017, was himself accused of trafficking models.
Natalie, who is in contact with other Al Fayed survivors, said she would be willing to speak to British police investigating his abuse ring.
Natalie remembers arriving at the dock and being welcomed on to a “huge boat” by a “much older man” who introduced himself as “Mohamed”. A number of other people were on the yacht, including, she alleges, a man identifying himself as Mohamed’s brother, believed to bethe late Salah Fayed.
Photographs from July 1997 show Al Fayed’s son, Dodi, and his girlfriend at the time, Diana, Princess of Wales, on boardAl Fayed’s specially commissioned superyacht, the Jonikal, when it was anchored off Saint‑Tropez on the French Riviera for most of that summer.
“I was definitely on the boat, and it was definitely that guy,” Natalie said. “I remember his face. You don’t forget these things.” She did not recall seeing Dodi or Diana.
Al Fayed did not talk much about Epstein during their few hours together, other than to say he had arranged their meeting, Natalie said. “It wasn’t a party or anything, but there were a few people on the boat,” she added.
