Janan Harb Explained

Birth Place:Ramallah, Palestine
Known For:Former wife of King Fahd

Janan George Harb (Arabic: جنان حرب; born 1947) is a former wife of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia.[1] [2]

Biography

Janan Harb was born in Ramallah, Palestine, in 1947 to a Christian Arab family.[3] She met Prince Fahd at a party in Jeddah in December 1967.[3] They married in a secret ceremony in Jeddah in March 1968, and she had been converted into Islam just before the marriage.[3] [4] They lived in Jeddah and London during their marriage.[3] She introduced some of her friends to Prince Fahd who was the interior minister during that period to enable them to get jobs or visas.[3] [5]

She says that she was forced by senior royals including Prince Salman and Prince Turki, full brothers of Prince Fahd, to leave Saudi Arabia in 1970.[4] They thought that she was responsible for the addiction of Prince Fahd to methadone which he had begun to use following chronic stomach pains in 1969.[3] She rejects any role in the addiction of her ex-husband.[3] Harb left Saudi Arabia and first went to Beirut and to the US.[3] In 1974 she married a Lebanese lawyer with whom she has two daughters.

To the embarrassment to the Saudi royal family she launched a £400m maintenance claim against King Fahd in 2004, a year before Fahd's death.[2] In 2016 she lost the case.[6]

Book

Janan Harb published a book entitled The Saudi King and I in which her relationship with King Fahd is detailed. The story has been sold for making a film which is provisionally titled The Sins of King Fahd, and a three-minute teaser of the film was posted to YouTube.[7]

Notes and References

  1. News: The King and I. 8 August 2007. 25 May 2012. The Times.
  2. News: Bankrupt Former wife of Saudi king seeks £12m from prince - London socialite alleges a secret royal marriage, hush money and dodgy defence contracts. 27 September 2009. 25 May 2012. The Independent.
  3. Web site: Harb v HRH Prince Abdulaziz . Casemine. 22 November 2020.
  4. News: Saudi prince's ex-wife stripped of $17m after losing appeal. 22 November 2020. Middle East Eye. 19 June 2016.
  5. Steffen Hertog. The Sociology of the Gulf Rentier Systems: Societies of Intermediaries. Comparative Studies in Society and History. April 2010 . 52. 2. 282–318. 10.1017/S0010417510000058. 40603088. 146724730 .
  6. News: Woman claiming to be late Saudi king's 'wife' loses legal battle. 22 November 2020 . Business Standard. 16 June 2016. London.
  7. http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/exclusive-trailer-released-film-about-secret-lives-saudi-royals-1462172481 MiddleeastEye: Trailer released for film about the ‘secret lives’ of Saudi royals