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As the Netflix’s much-anticipated season 5 of The Crown, a historical drama television series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, is premiering this month, there has been a resurgence of interest in Princess Diana’s complicated love life after her breakup with Prince Charles in 1996.
Before her death in 1997, the late Princess of Wales had various relationships after leaving the future king. Diana and cardiac specialist Hasnat Khan had a lesser-known but ostensibly more serious relationship. The U.K.-based doctor is portrayed in the Netflix series by actor Humayun Saeed.
Diana and Khan privately dated for two years, though the world is more familiar with her romance with Dodi al-Fayed, with whom she died in a car crash in Paris, France, in 1997 after 30 days of dating.
At the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, Diana met Khan in 1995, two months before her notorious Panorama interview. The physician, of Pakistani descent, was an expert in heart and lung surgery. Diana was visiting a friend at the hospital who was recovering from heart surgery when they ran into each other there. Diana started going alone to the hospital on a regular basis to speak with the sick and injured patients as well as have a covert meeting with Khan.
“I found her a very normal person. We all have our drawbacks, but I found her a very normal person with great qualities, and some personal drawbacks, like bad habits. We all have drawbacks,” Khan said in his only personal interview with The Mail on Sunday in 2008. “I think she did great work for the country and for people all over the world – not just in the U.K. but everywhere. I think that is important.”
The pair dated from 1995 to 1997 and went to great lengths to keep their romance private. They’d often meet at Diana’s Kensington Palace residence with Khan smuggled in the trunk of Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell’s car.
The couple talked about their potential future together, despite their many differences and difficulties. Diana visited Pakistan multiple times while in her relationship with Khan. She even privately met with Khan’s family in Lahore, and was said to be considering the idea of permanently moving to Pakistan so they could continue their romance.
In a 2008 inquest into Diana’s death, Khan shed light on some of the problems in his relationship with Diana.
“I knew I would not be able to lead a normal life,” he said in a statement at the time. “My main concern about us getting married was that my life would be hell because of who she was.”
When Khan provided a personal statement for the inquest investigating her death in 2008, new details regarding their connection came to light. The late Princess of Wales made a connection with Mohamed al-son, Fayed’s Dodi al-Fayed, while travelling on his boat in the south of France in the summer of 1997, and she believed he “could provide her all the things I could not,” according to Khan. He had the resources to give her the protection she required.
