The Princess of Wales might have described her former marriage as too crowded because there were "three people in it". But her new relationship with department store heir Dodi Fayed has turned into a quintet with the arrival in the drama of Mr Fayed's former wife and, more bizarrely, his double, who is serving time for fraud in a Canadian jail. The princess flew to the Mediterranean at the weekend for a cruise with a female friend, Lady Rosa Monckton.
British newspapers reported that the Harrods store heir had been dogged by a double. A former merchant seaman, Mohamed Sead, was said to have seduced beautiful women and run up huge bills while posing as Mr Fayed.
The fake Mr Fayed offered film parts to Jodie Foster and Brooke Shields and on one occasion booked 23 rooms at the Miami Fontainebleau Hilton hotel - plus five for luggage and four for security guards - in Mr Fayed's name, the Sunday Times reported.
Mr Sead, an Egyptian like Mr Fayed, is reported to be in jail in Canada, serving a two-year term for impersonation.
In a court affidavit, Mr Fayed (41) said: "By impersonating me, Sead has caused immeasurable damage to my good name, my reputation, my family and Harrods as well as causing potential commercial damage to my business interests."
Mr Fayed's former girlfriend, model Kelly Fisher, claimed yesterday that he made love to her by night while romancing Princess Diana by day.
The 30-year-old American alleged in an interview with the News of the World that the Egyptian playboy shuttled between her and Diana on a recent Mediterranean holiday. She has sold her story to Mr Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for around £200,000.
Ms Fisher said Mr Fayed told her he wanted her to have his baby during passionate moments on a yacht across the bay from the yacht where the princess was staying.
"I was blissfully unaware that the man trying to father my child was setting his sights on Diana," Ms Fisher, who now plans to sue Mr Fayed for breach of promise, was quoted as saying.
Ms Fisher told the newspaper that on the mornings after their lovemaking, Mr Fayed would disappear. "He'd reappear more than four or five hours later without explanation - other than that his father needed him. I now know that it was at that time he was romancing Diana."
But doubt was cast on Ms Fisher's side of the story by Mr Fayed's first wife, Ms Suzanne Gregard, another blonde, who was married to him for eight months in 1986. Ms Gregard (37) told the Sunday Mirror that Ms Fisher had broken off her relationship with Mr Fayed before he started seeing Princess Diana.
"Kelly told me, `I've broken up with him, I've had enough'," Ms Gregard said.
Mr Fayed denies he promised to marry Ms Fisher.
Meanwhile Princess Diana's sons, Princes William and Harry, are with their father on the royal family's Balmoral estate in Scotland.
Newspapers also reported that the prince had written to the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, expressing sympathy at media exposure of his break-up with his wife, Margaret, after an affair with his parliamentary secretary, Ms Gaynor Regan.