NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Lifestyle

Dubai's princess Latifa: A miserable life and mysterious disappearance

By Charlotte Willis
news.com.au·
5 Dec, 2018 09:04 PM6 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

The mystery of Dubai's missing princess. / 60 Minutes

The mystery of Dubai's missing princess just deepened, nine months after her disappearance.

Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed Al Maktoum is the daughter of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai's ruler and the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates. The 32-year-old has not been seen or heard from since she fled the affluent Middle East nation and the clutches of her controlling father in early March.

According to witnesses, the troubled princess was seized by armed men on a yacht about 50 kilometres off the coast of India, who planned to drag her back to Dubai where she could face prison or torture. However friends have now detailed how she spent seven years planning her failed escape bid from the Gulf state she considered a gilded prison.

Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has six wives. Photo / Getty Images
Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has six wives. Photo / Getty Images

The stunning details surrounding Princess Latifa Al Maktoum's doomed plan have been laid bare for the first time in a BBC documentary, Escape From Dubai, which was previewed by The Guardian.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Escape from Dubai: The Mystery of the Missing Princess

Thursday, 21:00 GMT @BBCThisWorld on @BBCTwo

The story of Princess Latifa, who attempted to escape Dubai in early 2018 but was captured and hasn't been heard from since. https://t.co/rMGjOuGru8#FreeLatifa @detainedindubai pic.twitter.com/XiwdX8fVjJ

— Peter J. Fry 😷 (@peterjfry) December 4, 2018

Included in the documentary is the young woman's now infamous escape video, reportedly entrusted to a lawyer in the US and first posted on YouTube, as well as interviews with a former French spy and Finnish martial arts teacher. Both claim to have helped the princess meticulously plan her risky mission.

According to the BBC documentary, set to air in the UK on Thursday, Princess Latifa escaped from Dubai in February. It described how she changed clothes and drove by car across the border to Oman, with the help of Tiina Jauhiainen, her close friend and martial arts instructor.

Ms Jauhiainen claims Princess Latifa first asked for her help to flee in 2014, after she was brought into the royal residence to teach her capoeira, a form of Brazilian martial arts.

"I didn't hesitate. I was like, 'yes, of course.' That would be a great adventure for both of us, leave together," the teacher recalls.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

5 months ago today she was sitting next to me full of dreams of a better future as we were heading towards #freedom... Today we must continue the fight to #FreeLatifa @haighdavid @RadhaStirling @tobycadman @hrw @amnesty @UNGeneva @UN_Women #help @escape_dubai pic.twitter.com/Q9ebQrJ5Uk

— Tiina Jauhiainen (@TiinaJauhiainen) July 24, 2018

The pair is said to have battled waves in a small inflatable boat and a jetski to reach a getaway boat flying a US flag in international waters where Hervé Jaubert, an ex-Navy officer was waiting. However almost 50 kilometres from the Indian coast, the tiny boat was stormed by Indian commandos, according to witnesses in the documentary.

Mr Jaubert, who escaped from Dubai himself following failed business dealings that resulted in a cancelled passport, says he was commissioned by the princess for the dangerous job after she read about him online. He revealed messages between the pair in which she explained her plight in the UAE. He alleges they began plotting her escape together as far back as 2011, saying she would "rather die" than return to her oppressive father's regime.

"She said that she would prefer to be killed on the boat, rather than going back to Dubai," Mr Jaubert says to the camera. "I don't even know where she is. I have the gravest concern."

In one email from Princess Latifa, she says: "I've been mistreated and oppressed all of my life.

Discover more

Entertainment

How Vikings became one of TV's most popular sagas

28 Nov 07:30 PM
World

Hawaiian princess, 92, bequeaths millions to her wife amid ongoing court battle

29 Nov 12:36 AM
Travel

Passport check: UAE travellers holders of most powerful papers

04 Dec 07:21 PM
Royals

Furious TV host claims Meghan Markle ghosted him

04 Dec 07:25 PM

"Women are treated like subhumans. My father … can't continue to do what he's been doing to us all."

Mr Jaubert and Princess Latifa swapped messages every two or three days for a period of several years before the plan began to take shape, he says.

Ms Jauhiainen later told a London press conference the daughter of the ruler of Dubai would be "drugged and held against her will" after the failed escape attempt.

She said the princess would be "hidden away and medicated" so that she could not communicate with the outside world.

Princess Latifa is the second of the Dubai ruler's daughters to attempt to escape a caged life of extreme wealth and privilege, only to vanish after reports of recapture. Her older sister, Princess Shamsa, was seized on the streets of Cambridge after fleeing the family's sprawling Surrey estate in 2000. Just 19 at the time, Shamsha claims she was kidnapped by members of her father's staff and returned to Dubai against her will.

Latifa is the daughter of one of the Sheikh's lesser-known wives — he has six in total. In her candid YouTube escape video, Princess Latifa claims she once spent time in jail, a torturous experience that lasted from June 2002 to October 2005 after a previous attempt to flee the city.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"It was constant torture, constant torture," she says in the video.

"Even when they weren't physically beating me up, they would torture me.

"I was in solitary confinement by myself, totally, and there's no windows, there's no light."

Mr Jaubert and Ms Jauhianien were thrown in a Dubai jail after disastrous operation. They say they were beaten, threatened with death, starved and dehydrated, and interrogated for up to 20 hours a day before finally being released.

The BBC documentary team says they believe she was returned to her father in Dubai, however no one has seen or heard from her since, despite pressure from Human Rights Watch.

Unofficial reports from government sources in Dubai suggest Latifa is safely back with her family.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

She has been missing for 7 long months! Time to #FreeLatifa @HHShkMohd and let her have her freedom, the only thing she ever wanted #humanrights #womensrights @amnestyfinland @hrw @haighdavid @RadhaStirling #princesslatifa #timeisup @UN_Women pic.twitter.com/uP6LSH3cqt

— Tiina Jauhiainen (@TiinaJauhiainen) October 4, 2018

World leaders, media & human rights groups made a huge fuss about the disappearance of #JamaKhashoggi but we never saw the same outcry when #PrincessLatifa was kidnapped & disappeared by UAE rulers. Why the double standards? https://t.co/rb7Q85rq2L Via @hanraisi @detainedindubai

— Peter Tatchell (@PeterTatchell) October 31, 2018
Save

    Share this article

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Lifestyle

Josh Emett and the eclair that became an icon

Premium
Lifestyle

‘They come at you’: The grandmothers playing rough at a kids’ sport

17 Jun 06:00 AM
World

How often you should be cleaning your toilet, according to experts

17 Jun 12:12 AM

Sponsored: Embrace the senses

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Lifestyle

Premium
Josh Emett and the eclair that became an icon

Josh Emett and the eclair that became an icon

It’s been an Onslow signature menu item since day one. Now, Josh Emett’s famous crayfish eclair has clawed its way into the Iconic Auckland Eats Top 100 list. Video / Alyse Wright

Premium
‘They come at you’: The grandmothers playing rough at a kids’ sport

‘They come at you’: The grandmothers playing rough at a kids’ sport

17 Jun 06:00 AM
How often you should be cleaning your toilet, according to experts

How often you should be cleaning your toilet, according to experts

17 Jun 12:12 AM
Premium
‘I’ve given up asking’: Why so many midlifers are struggling with sexless marriages

‘I’ve given up asking’: Why so many midlifers are struggling with sexless marriages

16 Jun 11:52 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP