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The Times – The King and I<br/> Janan Harb was 20 when she married secretly into the Saudi Royal Family. For two years she lived in unimaginable opulence before being sent into exile. Now, 40 years later, she explains why she wants a £1.4bn share of the late King’s fortune

Harb, 60, is the former wife of King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, once the richest man in the world with a £30 billion fortune. Now she is about to relaunch the biggest maintenance claim in the world, this time using the American courts.

At 20, she married King Fahd bin Abdul Aziz, who ruled the oil-rich nation for 23 years until his death two years ago. Harb, the daughter of a hard-working restaurateur, stumbled into a world of unimaginable wealth and opulence.

She was ensconced in a velvet-draped palace in Jedda, surrounded by Somali and Ethiopian servants. Her chauffeur-driven car was a strawberry-hued Aston Martin, and she was showered with collections of Piaget watches and Oscar de la Renta dresses which King Fahd picked for her himself.

Because she was born a Christian, she was kept hidden from the public in case it was discovered that a Saudi king, the defender of the Islamic faith, had married an infidel. Harb was forced by her husband to have three abortions in a year, and the palace began to feel increasingly like a prison. Two years after their marriage, she was exiled to the US and Britain upon his request and became the King’s escort in the West.

Today, she says, that life seems very distant. King Fahd died two years ago last week, and with him her claim through the High Court in London for a share of his fortune. This year, Harb is to launch a new £1.4 billion suit against the Saudi Royal Family in America, having secured testimony from witnesses to their relationship and wedding in 1968. …

“My legal case in the UK came to a close upon the death of my husband. But it is still my belief that King Abdullah [the current Saudi monarch and Fahd’s half-brother] will look into it and handle the justice in it. It is a dilemma because for the past two years I have been patient and behaved in an elegant way,” she says.

When told of whispers that she is a “gold-digger”, she shakes her head. She wants recognition from the House of Saud, not just money: she insists that she has been long frustrated by the official Saudi efforts to deny her status.

“My marriage certificate is in the royal archives but every time we approach them they refuse to acknowledge me or the marriage. I lived for three years in al-Sharafiya palace in Jedda, I married him in an official ceremony, and I introduced him to some big business contacts. As a wife, I am entitled to my share. Justice is what I am asking from King Abdullah. I would like him to invite me to go to Saudi Arabia and tell him the story as opposed to going through US courts, to the detriment of his family’s reputation. Let him be the judge.”

Boy meets girl, boy woos girl, boy marries girl despite the wishes of his family, boy doesn’t tell his family about the wedding, boy hides girls for three years, boy forces girl to have abortions, boy exiles girl to the infidel west where the women are all loose and amoral and girl will blend in, boy visits her occasionally but then dies and boy’s family stiffs girl of her inheritance. A Saudi love story.