Lived sinfully-died funny: the story of the last King of Egypt, Farouk I

King Farouk I of Egypt and Sudan was, without exaggeration, the most extravagant monarch of the 20th century. He collected red cars, pornographic postcards, razor-blade packages, and diamonds, dragged himself behind every skirt, and ignored state affairs. Under him, Egypt lost the war to tiny Israel and became the most corrupt monarchy on the planet. But Farook's main "trick" is a pathological passion for food: it haunted him all his short life and eventually led to his grave.

Prince Farouk grew up in absolute permissiveness, except for one thing – food was hidden from the young heir to the throne. The boy's father, King Fuad, ordered the nannies and servants to destroy any cakes and rolls they found in the palace. Sweet carbonated drinks were also exterminated, causing the august baby to tremble in his hands and knees.

The king knew what he was doing, because the family had a bad inheritance in the male line. Fuad himself suffered from gluttony all his life, and his father, Farouk's grandfather, died trying to drink two bottles of champagne in one gulp at an advanced age. But the prince was not so simple and struggled against the imposed diet.

Once he was caught eating a cat's dinner, and another time the son of the court electrician, Antonio Pulli, was caught by the hand, secretly carrying sweets under his clothes. Despite the fiasco, Farouk did not forget this service, and when he became king, he made the Italian his valet and companion in the Rabelaisian revels. And Pooley had also been responsible for supplying women to the king's bed for many years, and he was also known for his debauchery.

After the death of his father, 16-year-old Farouk became king. The young monarch immediately began to make up for lost time, uncontrollably devouring sweets and chasing after the ladies. The marriage for some time besieged the young man and many even had hope that the family would settle down the king-reveller. But the family idyll did not last long – Queen Farida became uninteresting to Farook after a couple of years.

His wife bore the monarch two daughters, Fawzia and Fadia, one after the other, and Farouk dreamed of an heir. The wife was to blame for the collapse of hopes, and the offended king again seeks solace in eclairs, wine and women. Immoderation in food made itself felt – the ruler of Egypt was rapidly gaining weight, turning into a kind of ball.

In 1943, the king in his red Cadillac gets into an accident and breaks his pelvis. Transporting the monarch to the hospital has become a problem – the stretcher breaks under the weight of the royal body and you have to send for others. In Egypt, it is rumored that Farouk eats a dozen eggs, a few quails, and a couple of cans of red caviar for breakfast. Of course, this is a lie, and to dispel it, the king allows the press to enter his residence for the first and last time.

The journalists spent most of the day enjoying Farouk's hospitality and were able to make sure that there was no red caviar in his diet. For breakfast, the king was pleased to eat sherbet and fruit, and for lunch they served lobster, baked chicken, chicken fricassee, lamb ribs, sea tongue, mashed potatoes, rice, beans and artichokes.

In the early 40s, a very young Farouk notices that his masculine strength is weakening. For a playboy of the state scale, problems with potency were a real blow. In a panic, the king rushes to the world's luminaries for help, and then to the healers. Farouk is treated with a mixture of hashish with honey and ground rhino horn, but to no avail.

As you might guess, trouble Farook eats lobsters and biscuits, which is not good for him. In 1948, the king divorced his wife, to whom he had long cooled off. For two years, the ruler of Egypt leads a promiscuous bachelor life, but in 1950 he gets hooked.

Unexpectedly, Farouk I falls in love, and not with a noble person, but with an ordinary commoner. His chosen one is 16-year-old Narriman Sadek, not a match for his first wife-a statuesque and spectacular aristocrat. The king's new love is a plump little man with the habits of a market vendor. In Egypt, the news was received with indignation that their monarch was planning to marry a person from the people, but that he was the ruler to do his own thing.

Narriman is sent to Europe, where he is quickly taught good manners and forced to lose weight. Farouk himself is also preparing for the upcoming wedding – he goes on a fashionable diet, which involves eating seafood. Every week, 600 fresh oysters were brought to Cairo from Denmark, which the king carefully devoured.

But for a long time the glutton was not enough and soon Farouk broke down. He took an incognito 21-room suite in the French resort of Deauville and plunged into his favorite business-gluttony. A preserved receipt from a French restaurant dispassionately lists the dishes of one of Farouk I's dinners: veal in cream sauce, mushrooms in cream sauce, sea tongue in cream sauce, and a strawberry puree cake with whipped cream and chocolate.

So for the wedding, which took place on May 6, 1951, the groom not only did not lose weight, but, on the contrary, gained weight. On their honeymoon, the newlyweds went on a royal yacht that toured around Europe, calling at ports in different countries. In every city, the royal couple was waiting for the tables full of local delicacies. In January 1952, Narriman blessed the 32-year-old Farook with a long-awaited heir.

Farouk I was not a despotic monarch who tortured his subjects. He was just nothing. Contemporaries recalled that the king was never seen writing or reading, and he spent all important state meetings at the table with a glass in his hand. The affairs of the state were for him the tenth matter, and this caused first perplexity, and then discontent among the subjects.

If in Egypt the murmur was barely audible, then in other countries they were not shy in their expressions. European and American newspapers openly referred to Farook as "pig-like" and published offensive caricatures of him. The US government tried to persuade the king of the country, which is strategically important in the Middle East and North Africa, to reform. The case was taken up by CIA agents, who unofficially called the operation "Fat Fucker" (Fat Fucker).

All efforts to restore Farouk to order were in vain. The king continued to spend money from the treasury on women, gambling, and delicacies, without any concern for his people or the interests of the state. In 1952, a coup took place in the kingdom, not without the participation of the CIA.

During the revolution, the glutton king fled the country, and General Mohammed Naguib came to power. Formally, the country was ruled for another year by Farouk's son Ahmed Fuad II, but a year later the monarchy was finally abolished and Egypt became a republic.

During the coup, Farouk was not injured and, having loaded with his wife and food supplies on the yacht "Maruza", left for Italy. In fact, the boxes of lemonade and chocolate were filled to the brim with gold bars and precious stones, and the only food on board was a little cheese and bread. The soldiers who examined the ship before going to sea, laughed at the abundance of chests and boxes of food and did not examine them.

Soon, hungry but rich, Farouk arrived in Capri, where he gorged himself on chocolate ice cream and cakes. Then the monarch in exile with his wife and children leaves for Rome, where he is waiting for a luxury villa in a prestigious suburb. The life of a glutton in Rome goes on as usual – casinos, restaurants, elite brothels, hippodromes.

Narriman can not stand this rhythm and demands a divorce. After being released, the former queen returns to Egypt, and Farouk spends another 12 years eating and losing his impressive fortune at the card tables.

Farook's life ended unexpectedly, though predictably. He died on March 18, 1965, right at the table of the restaurant "Il da France" at the age of 45. The 150-pound visitor managed to eat 7 chickens, oysters with hot sauce, several baked potatoes, half a dozen eclairs, a whole Sacher cake and washed it all down with several cups of cappuccino and two bottles of wine. It is said that this dinner at Farouk's that day was not the first.

After loading a fantastic portion of food, the former king lit a cigar and at that moment he was overtaken by a heart attack. Farouk I's body was taken to Cairo and buried in the al-Rifai Mosque, alongside other Egyptian monarchs and Persian shahs from the Pahlavi dynasty.