Mishaal bint Fahd bin Mohammed Al Saud

Independent film producer Antony Thomas came to Saudi Arabia and interviewed numerous people about the princess's story. He was met by conflicting stories, which later became the subject matter of a British documentary, Death of a Princess. The movie was scheduled to show on 9 April 1980 on the ITV television network and then a month later on the public television network PBS in the United States. Both broadcasts were met with livid protests followed by strong diplomatic, economic and political pressure from the Saudis to cancel these broadcasts. After having failed to get the British broadcast cancelled, King Khalid expelled the British ambassador from Saudi Arabia.

In May 1980, attention then shifted to PBS, where their officials endured a month of mounting pressure from corporations and politicians. A major PBS sponsor, the Mobil Oil Corporation, took out a full-page ad in The New York Times op-ed page opposing the film and declaring it jeopardized U.S.-Saudi relations. After some stalling, it was eventually broadcast by the PBS program World in most of the US on 12 May 1980, although some PBS stations did not do so. For example, in South Carolina, the PBS affiliate cancelled broadcast of the film, a decision influenced by fact that the then US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, John C. West, had formerly been the state's Governor. The docudrama was aired in the United States as part of a weekly PBS program called "World". That program later became known as PBS Frontline. Death Of A Princess aired again on Frontline in 2005, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the original broadcast.

Princess Mishaal bint Fahd al Saud (1958 – 15 July 1977; Arabic: الأميرة مشاعل بنت فهد بن محمد بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود ‎) was a member of the House of Saud who was executed by gunshot for committing adultery in 1977, at the age of 19. She was a daughter of Fahd bin Muhammad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and a granddaughter of Prince Muhammad bin Abdulaziz, who was an older brother of King Khalid (the then-Saudi king) and a son of King Abdulaziz, the founder of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

On 15 July 1977, both were publicly executed in Jeddah by the side of the Queen's Building in the park. She was blindfolded, made to kneel, and executed on the explicit instructions of her grandfather, a senior member of the royal family, for the dishonor she brought on her clan. Khaled, after being forced to watch her execution, was beheaded with a sword by, it is believed, one of the princess' male relatives rather than by a professional executioner. Severing his head took five blows. Both executions were conducted near the palace in Jeddah, not in Deera Square.