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Al Anoud Al Fayez

former wife of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (born 1957)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ54967144 ↗
Source-derived summary

Sheikha Al Anoud bint Dahham Al Fayez (Arabic: العنود بنت دحام الفايز; born 1957) is a Jordanian noblewoman and former Saudi royal. She is the daughter of one of the sheikhs of the Al-Fayez clan from Bani Sakher, Sheikh Daham bin Dardah Al-Bakhit Al-Fayez and his wife Gutnah bint Mithqal Pasha Al-Fayez, daughter of the paramount Sheikh of the Bani Sakher.

She married King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in 1972 when she was 15 years old and he was about 50 years old. They divorced in 2003 and she has since then lived in London, United Kingdom. The King reportedly soured on her because of their inability to produce a son. She is the mother of four daughters: Jawaher, Hala, Maha, and Sahar Al-Saud. Her daughters were held captive by the Saudi regime, prompting Sheikha Al Anoud to call on the international community to help them. In 2021, her daughter Hala died. Her daughter Maha died six months later.

Marriage to the Saudi king

When she was fifteen years old, Sheikha Al Anoud entered into an arranged marriage with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

Editorial summary

“Al Anoud Al Fayez” enters the record as former wife of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia (born 1957). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anoud, Fayez and former can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1957, 1972, 2003, 2021—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1957. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Anoud, Fayez and former.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Al Anoud Al Fayez” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Anoud, Fayez and former provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q54967144. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1957, 1972, 2003 and 2021.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Al Anoud Al Fayez”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Al Anoud Al Fayez primary sources, Al Anoud Al Fayez archive and Anoud research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Al Anoud Al Fayez”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Al Anoud Al Fayez” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.