Sheikh Mohamed was further educated at schools in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi and a summer at Gordonstoun until the age of 18. Mohamed described his life back then by saying “There’d be a bowl of tabbouleh in the fridge, and I’d keep eating from it day after day until a kind of fungus formed on the top". He made his own meals and did his own laundry, and was often lonely. Mohamed spent several months working as a waiter in a local restaurant. He gave him a passport showing a different last name, so that he would not be treated like royalty.
His father Sheikh Zayed sent him to Morocco intending for it to be a discipline experience. Mohamed was educated at The Royal Academy in Rabat, where he was a classmate of the future Mohammed VI of Morocco, until the age of 10. They are referred to as Bani Fatima or sons of Fatima. He has five younger full-brothers: Hamdan, Hazza, Tahnoun, Mansour, and Abdullah. In addition to these, he has a few sisters. Mohamed's brothers are: Hamdan, Hazza, Saeed, Isa, Nahyan, Saif, Tahnoun, Mansour, Falah, Diab, Omar, and Khalid (as well as four deceased brothers Khalifa, Sultan, Nasser, and Ahmed). He is the third son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first President of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, and his third wife, Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Al Ketbi. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed was born in Al Ain on 11 March 1961 in what was then the Trucial States. After the death of Sheikh Khalifa on, Mohamed became the ruler of Abu Dhabi he was elected to the presidency of the United Arab Emirates the next day. He was also named as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2019 by Time. In 2019, The New York Times named him as the most powerful Arab ruler and one of the most powerful men on Earth. Academics have characterized Mohamed as the strongman leader of an authoritarian regime. He was entrusted with most day-to-day decision-making of the emirate of Abu Dhabi as the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. In January 2014, when his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa, the president of the UAE and ruler of Abu Dhabi, suffered a stroke, Mohamed became the de facto ruler of Abu Dhabi, controlling almost every aspect of UAE policymaking. He is seen as the driving force behind the UAE's interventionist foreign policy and is a leader of a campaign against Islamist movements in the Arab world. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan GCMG ( Arabic: محمد بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان born 11 March 1961), colloquially known by his initials as MBZ, is the third president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi.