Saudi’s ‘Sleeping Prince’ dies at 36 after 20 years in a coma

For two decades, Prince Al-Waleed bin Khaled bin Talal Al Saud lay suspended in a coma, his body unmoving while the world around him changed. Yet inside the hospital room in Riyadh, time was measured differently: in whispered prayers, quiet tears, and the rustle of his father’s robes as he stood faithfully at his bedside. Prince Khaled refused to see his son as a lost cause; he saw him as a living trust from God, deserving of love, dignity, and presence.

When the end finally came in July 2025, it was both a shattering blow and a strange kind of release. The “Sleeping Prince” was no longer trapped between worlds. His father’s public message of grief and faith echoed far beyond Saudi Arabia, touching parents who know the terror of almost losing a child. In the end, Al-Waleed’s story was not just about tragedy, but about a love stubborn enough to stand guard over a motionless hand for twenty unbroken years.