al-Fayed: Mental case or grieving father?

There've been many reports of Mohamed al-Fayed, father of Dodi al-Fayed who's the supposedly lover of Diana and who's killed in the same car crash in August 1997. One sample is the column on Lord Stevens' findings and the al-Fayed response at http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/legal/article2081659.ece

There's little doubt that he's both a grieving father and a mental case, having the illusion that to hope that "If Dodi and Diana had wed and if they had children, Britain would have had, in effect, an alternative royal family. The attractive, personable Fayeds. Or the charmless German Windsors?" Ah...that would have been a nice thought, wouldn't it, to have hoped that the long dead son could have become a pseudo royal in the class-conscious Britain. I guess he could never accept the notion that his son was but one of the many lovers that Diana wrapped around her fingers, who surely enjoyed the attention of men, and that his son was just a fool. Beneath that notion is also that Diana was the noble princess that would do no wrongs. If this father has grieved privately, maybe everyone around him would not have been forced to come out and say "this emperor has no clothes on."

In any case, I guess it's just too mean for anyone to come out and tell him straight in the face that he's a mental case. His money would have made people around him continue to play nice to him.

An old father living past his beloved son is sad. His finding will probably kill him when he's already in steady decline.