A love battle befitting Arabian Nights.
Well…not exactly. The Arabian Nights usually involve more subtlety, intrigue, decency, interesting characters and actual love. This peculiar case does not have any of that. But it is interesting enough.
It involves a Saudi princess and a allegedly gold-digging Swedish model. Sara al-Amoudi and Patrick Ribbsaeter met in Thailand and the two become romantically engaged. It would seem odd that a model, with no doubt much prospect for beautiful women, would devote his time to a woman wearing a face-veil with an eye slit. As the saying goes: Woman fail in love through the ears and men through the eyes, which entails actually being able to see a face.
Does this couple look ideal?
But true love conquers all, uh? No. Not really. Ribbsaeter never loved al-Amoudi, or at least that is what is being alleged. Apparently he was in it for the money. Men may be gold-diggers as well, ya know? Thinking she was a wealthy Saudi royal, he intended to seduce her and after making off with the money simply flee at some point, I guess. But his plan fell apart when he was caught in her London apartment sleeping with two women. And that’s when thinks caught ugly for the man who trades off his looks:
The fracas unfolded at the princess’s London flat after a night of drink and drugs, jurors were told.
[And] his hopes of a gilded future promptly disappeared when she caught him with the other women in her flat in Victoria, Central London, the court heard.
And after she dumped him, Ribbsaeter, 30, is alleged to have lunged at Miss Al-Amoudi as she slept. At this point her driver Sarkis Tokatlian stepped in to stop him, giving him a bloody nose, but Ribbsaeter smashed a wine glass and stabbed the driver six times in his face before beginning to strangle him, a jury was told.
Prosecutor Martin Whitehouse said the trial showed a world that was a far cry from the ‘idyllic, perhaps artificial’ image painted of the rich by Hello! magazine.
Mr Whitehouse called him a ‘gold-digger’ and said that while he may appear charming and good-looking, there was another side to him.
‘He’s violent, he’s vain, he’s egocentric,’ the prosecutor said. ‘He’s also, I suggest, a liar and prone to exaggeration.’
Those Saudi royals and the company and trouble they attach themselves too! Nice to see where the oil money is going.
On a separate note: It is unfortunate that al-Amoudi feels that need to wear the face veil in public since not even the horribly repressive Saudi kingdom mandates that the face be covered. She is actually beautiful and may be a nice woman deserving of more:
