Mr Al-Mudallal (right) has been viewed as an ally of Mr Ashley's within Frasers - LinkedIn

Mike Ashley’s youngest daughter is in a relationship with the newest board member of Frasers Group, it has emerged, in a sign of deepening family ties within the retail giant.

David Al-Mudallal, the chief operating officer at Frasers who was added to its board in February, is reportedly dating Matilda Ashley.

Ms Ashley is one of company founder Mr Ashley’s three children from his marriage to Linda Jerlmyr.

Mr Ashley’s eldest daughter Anna is married to the Frasers chief executive Michael Murray, who took over at the helm of the fashion giant in 2022. Mr Murray had previously been its “head of elevation” and in charge of all Frasers’ property deals.

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The relationship was reported by The Sunday Times. Frasers declined to comment.

Mr Al-Mudallal has been viewed as an ally of Mr Ashley’s within Frasers. He started at Frasers Group in 2017, first joining as its head of talent before being promoted as chief operating officer in 2021.

He was appointed as a board member in February along with Ger Wright, the managing director of its Sports business, and Helen Wright, the global chief executive of luxury brand Sergio Rossi.

Mr Murray said at the time that Mr Al-Mudallal and Mr Wright had “made enormous contributions to the ongoing success of our strategy, delivering operational excellence and empowering our business to excel”.

He hailed Ms Wright’s experience at “driving transformation at global luxury brands”.

News of the relationship between Mr Al-Mudallal and Ms Ashley comes amid speculation over how involved Mr Ashley remains in the day-to-day running of the business. He is still a consultant to Frasers Group and has been seen as the driving force behind the recent stake-building in rival retailers including Boohoo, Asos and Currys.

However, speaking to The Telegraph last year, Mr Murray insisted he was the one making decisions at the company, despite his father-in-law remaining Frasers’ largest shareholder. Mr Ashley owns around 73pc of Frasers.



Mr Murray said: “Mike is not on the board. I’m on the board with non-executive directors, and we make the decisions. You’ve got to be on the board to make the final decision.”

He said he was steering the stake-building, although has declined to comment about what the strategy was. Frasers has also taken a significant stake in model railway company Hornby and electronics store AO World.

Mr Murray said last October: “All I can do is talk about how it looks very obvious afterwards. [Luxury department store] Flannels was an acquisition, and now it seems normal that Flannels is a part of Frasers Group. And Game, you think: why would you buy 30pc of Game? Afterwards, it’s all very obvious.”

Scrutiny over decision-making within the company came to the fore in March, when Frasers Group put designer brand Matchesfashion into administration less than three months after buying the business.

Frasers bought the luxury online retailer in December in a £52m deal. Mr Murray had said financial pressures across the sector were creating more opportunities, saying: “If you look at the global luxury market, you can start to see the cracks in the businesses which haven’t got that financial resilience. With the slight dip in the market, opportunities will suddenly start to present themselves.”

However, last month, Frasers said it was having to put the brand into administration amid unsustainable losses.

Frasers said “too much change would be required to restructure it, and the continued funding requirements would be far in excess of amounts that the group considers to be viable”.