Diana's true love was British-Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, not Egyptian socialite Dodi Fayed, say friends
Princess Diana had a tumultuous romantic life ever since she married Charles, the Prince of Wales. Although she kept her trepidations about Charles' affair with his longtime girlfriend Camilla Parker Bowles under wraps, the fissures between their relationship became increasingly evident, with Charles eventually confessing about his affair.
Charles' unprecedented move of going public about his affair broke Diana, however, she picked herself and moved on. She became a complex amalgamation of distress and determination.
The princess began meeting new people until one day she chanced upon a doctor while waiting for a friend in a patients' waiting room — Hasnat Khan. The meeting would change Diana's coming years as a besotted Diana pursued the doctor. Some of the Princess' closest friends have called him the love of her life.
Diana, during her final days, was pursuing a doctor who could not commit and was being pursued by a playboy who left her conflicted, according to the ABC News documentary 'The Last 100 Days of Diana.' The princess' final 100 days began with a trip to Pakistan. She was there to meet cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan and his British wife who had opened a cancer hospital.
However, the film states that the princess had an ulterior motive: to meet Hasnat Khan's family for their approval. Khan, back home in Britain, had no idea about Diana visiting his family and was reportedly furious at her. "Why would she go to meet my family?" tabloids reported an outraged Khan as saying.
Diana and Khan tried hard to conceal their relationship, but she revealed the details to her longtime butler Paul Burrell and some of her close friends. She was certain Khan was the one for her. Diana was truly taken by a person who healed people and had absolutely no interest in her fame.
Although Khan, who had "virtually moved into the Kensington Palace", cared for Diana and possibly loved her, he abhorred attention and wanted to live a normal life of a surgeon doing his duty. According to Burrell, he did not want to be "Mr. Diana."
Burrell claims Diana had even expressed a desire to have a secret marriage with Khan but he made her understand that it would be impossible to keep the wedding of the most famous woman at the time a secret. Khan reportedly also had reservations about the stark contrast in his and Diana's cultures and traditions, as he came from a very traditional Pakistani family in contrast to Diana's.
This was possibly one of the reasons Diana had made the secret trip to Pakistan, to woo his family. But Khan's family, which had no idea of their relationship, was perplexed seeing a princess drinking tea with them in their living room. For Khan, Diana had crossed the boundary.
Over the two years of a tumultuous relationship with Khan, she attempted to make him jealous by dating others, including a Thailand-based electronics mogul, Gulu Lalwani. To Lalwani, she referred to Khan as an ex-boyfriend, however, it eventually became clear to him she still had Khan in her mind.
Diana and Khan's relationship came to a screeching halt after a tabloid published that Diana and Khan had been engaged. Khan was enraged and the couple reportedly had a shouting match when they met at Hyde Park to discuss the details.
The documentary stated Diana wanted her relationship with Khan to become public but the British-Pakistani doctor was having none of it. Days later, she went for a summer vacation with Prince William and Prince Harry to the south of France after accepting an invitation from Harrod's owner Mohamed Al Fayed, who had plans of his own for the most eligible woman in the world.
Al Fayed, during the vacation, made her meet his son Dodi Fayed, who was allegedly engaged to a model in the U.S. Dodi and Diana, however, took a liking to each other and a passionate affair brewed in the coming months, with Khan attempting to reach her on phone all this while.
This was, again, Diana's way of making Khan feel jealous, the film stated. After Diana and Dodi's affair began making the news, the princess, on one occasion, reportedly called Khan's uncle to tell him Dodi was just a friend and she was just holidaying with him. This revealed that despite speculations of an engagement between Dodi and Diana, her heart was still for Khan. The film stated that despite Diana's amorous rendezvous with other men, Khan was the one most special to her, she called him "Mr. Wonderful."
Diana tragically died during a trip in Paris with Dodi on August 31, 1997. She was set to return to the U.K. after days of vacationing and was tired of it all. Days after her death, it was revealed Khan had tried to reach her on phone in Paris the night she died because he was worried.
