Friends and former colleagues of Dodi Fayed say the late Egyptian film producer's life was dominated by drug use, not by the romanticized portrait presented in recent dramatizations, according to interviews published Wednesday.

Fayed, who died at 42 alongside Diana, Princess of Wales, in a 1997 car crash in Paris, "was consumed by cocaine," Hollywood talent manager Paul Cohen told RadarOnline. Cohen said Fayed hosted prolonged parties in the 1980s and '90s where cocaine was freely available and that Fayed rarely showed sexual interest in women or men because his substance use left him detached and often paranoid.

"Cocaine was what drove him," Cohen said. "People saw him photographed with actresses and models, but he showed very little sexual interest in anyone. The great love of his life was drugs."

The depiction of Fayed in the most recent season of the Netflix series The Crown — which shows him as a shy playboy pursuing the princess at his father Mohamed Al Fayed's urging — drew skepticism from friends who say it omits the extent of his addiction.

Filmmaker David Puttnam, who directed Chariots of Fire and worked with Fayed as an executive producer, said he removed Fayed from a set after discovering he had offered cocaine to cast members. "With the best will in the world, Dodi, this didn't happen. And I never want to see you again around my cast and crew," Puttnam told RadarOnline, describing Fayed as "one of the laziest people I ever came across."

Cohen described gatherings he called the "3Cs" — champagne, cocaine, and caviar — at the Beverly Hills Hotel where Fayed sometimes hosted multi-day parties. He said Fayed's supply was on "another scale" compared with the widespread cocaine use in Hollywood at the time.

Despite a lavish lifestyle funded by his father, Cohen said Fayed lived in fear that his allowance could be cut and that he was a target for kidnappers. He often traveled with armed bodyguards and checked restaurants for threats, Cohen said. That paranoia, Cohen said, was aggravated by cocaine use.

At the time he met Diana in 1997, Fayed was reportedly engaged to model Kelly Fisher. Cohen said many friends were surprised by the relationship. "To imagine him as Diana's last great romance never rang true," he said.

Those who knew Fayed painted a mixed picture: generous and gentle at times, but increasingly isolated and dependent on drugs. "I sometimes wonder if his paranoia from cocaine use played into what happened that night," Cohen said, reflecting on the deaths in the Alma Tunnel on Aug. 31, 1997. "But whatever his flaws, Dodi was gentle, generous — a good man. It's sad that even in death, he was overshadowed by Diana."

Representatives for the Fayed family did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Netflix did not respond to a request for comment about the Crown's portrayal.

The new recollections arrive as the public marks the 28th anniversary of the crash that killed Diana and Fayed, a relationship that has continued to attract attention and scrutiny in media and popular culture.

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