Princess Haya leaves London’s High Court in 2019

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Earlier this year, Princess Haya triumphed over Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in a legal battle for the responsibility of their children. The divorce between Sheikh Mohammed — Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE — and Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein, the youngest of his six wives, is one of the most high-profile separation cases in recent years. It culminated in the Sheikh being ordered by court to pay her a record £554 million settlement last year. 

In March, another chapter of their legal proceedings came to a close as Dubai’s ruler was denied legal responsibility for his two children with Princess Haya.

Haya now has sole responsibility of the pair’s children — 14-year-old Jaila and 10-year-old Zayed — in light of the Sheikh’s history of abusive behaviour towards Haya. 

Back in 2019, Haya — the 48-year-old half-sister of King Abdullah II of Jordan — fled Dubai to London with her children after the Sheikh learned of her affair with her British bodyguard.

It was there that she quickly hired her barrister, Fiona Shackleton, who represented Prince Charles in his 1996 divorce from Diana, Princess of Wales, filed for divorce and petitioned the British High Court to grant her both a forced marriage protection order (which allows her to keep her daughter from having to return to Dubai, where arranged unions are common) and a non-molestation order aimed at preventing “harassment” by her estranged spouse.

Speculation surrounding the reason behind the couple’s split began circulating — from reports about the princess’ affair with her bodyguard to charges of intolerable conditions imposed by the prince at his palaces.

Speaking to The Guardian’s Today in Focus podcast in September 2019, journalist Ola Salem detailed the court scene during the divorce proceedings and discussed the potential reason behind Haya’s escape. 

She described Sheikh Mohammed as a “loved” ruler and noted his “modern” and “progressive” ways. 

Ms Salem said: “The narrative has been that she [Princess Haya] wronged him [Sheikh Mohammed] and so she had to leave. 

“However, it has been heard and widely reported that she learned some shocking details — about Sheikha Latifa, who’s one of the daughters of Sheikh Mohammed, and how she was treated — that had her scared for her life and her children’s lives.”

Haya was not the first princess to flee from Dubai. 

One of the Sheikh’s daughters, Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, tried to flee — twice. 

In 2002, when she was just 16, Latifa attempted to cross the border into Oman during a riding expedition, and in February 2018 she embarked on an almost “impossible” mission to escape, which involved crossing into Oman in a car, then continuing via an inflatable dinghy, jet skis, and a yacht named Nostromo.

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Ms Salem explained: “We first heard about her after she attempted an almost mission impossible escape attempt.”

Latifa was accompanied by a friend and a trainer as they headed “towards India, where she was eventually hoping to seek political asylum in the US.”

Ms Salem continued: “While she was able to pass all these obstacles and actually reach the yacht, the yacht was commandeered and she was brought back to Dubai while others on the boat were arrested.”

Once an avid user of social media, Latifa outlined her escape in a video and revealed why she wanted to get away. 

Ms Salem said: “She speaks of her treatment in the Palace — her lack of freedom, lack of choice, being tortured.”

Latifa was allegedly imprisoned for three years, having tried to escape a few years earlier.

Ms Salem said: “Then she talks about how her father doesn’t care about anything except his image.”

The video also corroborated a previous escape attempt, carried out by Latifa’s older sister Sheikha Shamsa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum, who was the first princess reported to try to flee. 

In the summer of 2000, Shamsa was on a family vacation in the UK and in an effort to escape the restrictions of her life in Dubai, she fled from her family and stayed with friends in London. 

However, after a few weeks, Shamsa was forcefully picked up from the streets of Cambridge and taken back to Dubai on a private jet. 

Ms Salem understands that, according to Latifa’s video, Shamsa is in “some sort of solitary confinement in the Palace with a psychiatrist present and given medication,” admitting that this is alleged and may never be confirmed. 

Shamsa has not been seen in public since her capture in August 2000. 

The video was released in 2018, and, since then, only a trickle of information has surfaced regarding the whereabouts of Latifa. 

Princess Latifa opens up on 'hostage' ordeal

She was not seen in public for nine months, with reports suggesting that she had been jailed inside the Zabeel Palace and kept docile with drugs.

Amid calls for “proof of life” by the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, Sheikh Mohammed permitted Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and a friend of Princess Haya’s, to spend some time with Latifa in December 2018 at Zabeel Palace, although only in the presence of others.

Ms Salem said: “We know there is a connection between them — they both worked in the UN, she (Princess Haya) lived in Ireland for many years and they’ve known each other for many years. 

“The pictures were released to show the world that Latifa was alive and well.”

However, Ms Salem describes Latifa as looking “very dazed”, with people who know her saying that she did “not look like herself”. 

Princess Haya herself was vague and evasive when interviewed about the episode on Ireland’s RTE Radio a month later. 

In January 2018, she called Latifa’s escape “a private family matter, and I don’t want to go any more deeply into it, for the protection of Latifa herself and to ensure that she’s not used by anyone else. She’s a vulnerable young woman.”

Her family vehemently denied all allegations made in Latifa’s 2018 video. 

But, in the months ahead of her own escape, it was reported that Haya had become troubled by what she had learned about Latifa’s imprisonment. 

She inevitably fled to the UK and lived life in seclusion for a number of months, before coming to a divorce settlement and, most recently, emerging triumphant in a legal battle over responsibility over her and Sheikh Mohammed’s children. 

In court, Haya said that her husband’s threatening behaviour, paired with the discoveries she’d made about the brutal treatment of Shamsa and Latifa after their own escape attempts, prompted her to flee. 

Haya remains in the UK and has sole custody of her two children. 

Meanwhile, Latifa’s story saw a surprising twist in the spring of 2021, when a photograph of the Sheikha surfaced on social media. 

The image saw Latifa seated at Dubai’s luxurious Mall of the Emirates with two female acquaintances, seemingly in good spirits, with the caption reading: “Lovely evening at MoE with friends.”

Kenneth Roth, the director of Human Rights Watch, welcomed the photo as “proof of life,” but said that it proved nothing about “the conditions of her confinement or her freedom.”

One month later, in June 2021, a British schoolteacher in Dubai, Sioned Taylor, posted an image of herself and the princess at Madrid’s international airport. 

Ms Taylor captioned the photograph: “Great European holiday with Latifa. We’re having fun exploring!” 

Then, in August, another photo appeared on the teacher’s Instagram account showing Ms Taylor, Latifa and her cousin on holiday in Iceland. 

This third photograph prompted the organisers of the Free Latifa advocacy group to announce that the campaign was disbanding.  

A statement at the time read: ”The primary purpose … was to see Latifa free and leading the life she chooses for herself.

“We have clearly gone a long way to achieving that goal over the last three years, with bodies such as the United Nations now monitoring the current and future wellbeing of Latifa.”

In February 2022, an image of Latifa with Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was released. 

A corresponding statement was provided to Sky News, which read: “Sheikha Latifa would like to state that she had a lengthy, positive and private meeting in Paris with the High Commissioner to assert her right to a private life, following persistent media speculation about her.

“Latifa would like to make clear that she is living as she wishes, that she is travelling as she wishes, that she is perfectly well and that she would like the media to allow her to live in peace.”

As for Sheikh Mohammed, the scandal appears to have permanently tarnished his image abroad. 

In October, the Daily Mail reported that Queen Elizabeth II banished the Dubai ruler from the Royal Box at Ascot — a familiar perch for him for many years.

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