A former model turned women's rights campaigner claims she dated Dodi Fayed in the late 1990s.

Annie Cardone, who is from Rainham, says she was his girlfriend for about a year, from the summer of 1996 to 1997.

This was at the same time as he was dating Princess Diana and, reportedly, former Vogue cover girl Kelly Fisher.

She said the pair were introduced by a mutual friend when she was 31 and met at the London nightclub Tramp.

"We even danced together to Coolio's Gangster's Paradise which then became our song," the now 57-year-old said.

"I still think of him even now when I hear it, I go straight back to that moment."

She said he called her the next day and had a driver pick her up from her flat in Fulham and take her to his Park Lane apartment for a pre-dinner drink.

She continued: "When he told me his last name I knew his father owned Harrods and I asked him how it was being the son of the owner of a corner shop in Knightsbridge – that made him smile, I think he found it refreshing that a girl did not want anything from him.

"We quickly became a couple over the next few months and I absolutely loved being in his company. Dodi was lovely to my friends and they were always invited out with us."

Annie, who was an international model for 10 years, said they were on and off for the year of the relationship, and Dodi travelled to places like LA and Paris a lot.

"I think Dodi liked me because I was just very normal," she said. "I worked hard, had my own goals and made him laugh with my cheeky banter.

"Dodi liked that I was sharp and quick witted and that I really told things how they were – he never had to guess where I was coming from.

"He was not around good people and was not a judge of good people – he was way too trusting and so many of them were there for themselves and what they could get and were not a good influence."

She said that Dodi would never drive himself and would always have a driver.

"He hated fast driving which was one of the reasons I was so stunned at the way he died, in a speeding car," she said. "It made no sense."

Annie says she was the one that ended the relationship in the summer of 1997.

She said: "It was horrendous, I went over to his apartment to get closure and he tried everything he could to change my mind.

"He cried, he begged and even fell to the floor distraught but I would not give in and knew I needed more than he could give."

She says she was shocked when she found out about his death and felt sad that he had finally found love and then had it all ripped away.

"When I saw the first pictures of Diana and Dodi on the Fayed yacht Jonikal I knew it was a serious relationship," she said.

"Princess Diana had never publicly kissed anyone but Charles. Her butler Paul Burrell had to smuggle people into Kensington Palace in the back of his car so clearly this relationship was much more advanced than was believed at the time.

"Most of us know Dodi and Diana had known each other for years and they would not have gone public if she was not serious.

"Looking back every year the papers are full of Diana with tributes from around the world, but Dodi does not really get any attention.

"The people that did speak about him after the accident were not friends – they had nothing good to say about him.

"On reflection there have been times when I wished I had stepped forward but I did not want to be visible in that way, so I kept quiet and treasured my memories out of respect for him and his family."

Annie has appeared in the Channel 5 documentary Dodi: Last Days of a Playboy, which screened yesterday (Wednesday). It can also been seen on catch-up on My5.

She said she would find it comforting for people to know that Dodi was a "kind, sensitive, loving, person."

"He was empathetic to the pain and difficulties of others, and for the public to know she was with someone that soulful at the end of her life is really so heart-warming.

"Sadly we will never know what could have been for Dodi and Diana but one thing was for sure – he was in love. I do not doubt it for a second."