The Juggernaut
Princess Diana Reportedly Described Hasnat Khan as the "Love of Her Life"
By Emily Burack
The fifth season of The Crown dives into Princess Diana's life as a single woman following her separation from Prince Charles. During that time, the Princess of Wales was romantically linked to a few different people, including art dealer Oliver Hoare and rugby star Will Carling.
But only one man has been called the "love of her life"—British Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom Diana dated from 1995 to 1997. Here's everything you need to know about Khan, who is portrayed by Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed in the Netflix royal drama.
Hasnat Khan was born in Jhelum, Pakistan
He was raised in an upper middle class Muslim family, which is part of the Pathan tribe, an ethnic group native to a region in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In London, he got his PhD at Imperial College; Khan also has a bachelor’s in medicine and a Bachelor in surgery, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons. In the UK, he worked at Royal Brompton Hospital, London Chest Hospital, and Harefield Hospital.
When he dated Princess Diana, she visited his family in Pakistan in 1996. "She really enjoyed her time when she came here. She also enjoyed the afternoon tea she had with my family. And I think she very much liked the Asian family's eccentric culture," Khan later recalled .
He also had an aunt and uncle who lived in Stratford-upon-Avon, and often visited them. "Diana used to stay here with Hasnat and the rest of us," his uncle, Professor Jawad Sawid Khan, recalled . "We never let anyone know that she was here."
Khan met Princess Diana in late summer 1995.
The husband of Princess Diana's friend, Oonagh Toffolo, was recovering from heart surgery at Royal Brompton—where Khan worked at the time.
"At the time, I was working for Professor Yacoub, the heart surgeon, and Mr Toffolo was one of his patients, so I was involved in his medical treatment and care. I first met Diana when I had occasion to speak to Mrs Toffolo, whose husband was required to stay in hospital for some time," Khan recalled . "Diana would visit him on a regular basis. From what she had seen during her visits, Diana became very interested in the workings of the hospital."
He added, "I found Diana very down to earth, and she made everyone feel at ease. I did notice that she was also very flirtatious with everyone. Over a period of time, we became good friends." Soon, that friendship developed into a romance in September 1995, and by November of that year, the media caught wind of the partnership.
"Diana and I had a very good relationship with no personal problems. The only problem we did have was with the media and the only place we could have any real privacy was at Kensington Palace as they could not get to us there," Khan continued. "Diana was very protective towards me and wanted to shield me from the attention." He only opened up about their relationship during the inquest into her death in 2004.
Diana was "madly in love" with Hasnat and called him her soulmate and "Mr Wonderful"
During their relationship, Diana introduced Khan to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. Jemima Khan, a close friend of the Princess and the former wife of Hasnat’s distant cousin, Imran Khan, shared , "Diana was madly in love with Hasnat Khan and wanted to marry him, even if that meant living in Pakistan, and that’s one of the reasons why we became friends."
They eventually broke up because he could not cope with the media attention. "My main concern was about us getting married was that my life would be hell because of who she was," Khan explained. "I knew I would not be able to live a normal life and if we ever had children together, I would not be able to take them anywhere or do normal things with them."
Diana’s friend Rosa Monckton believed her relationship with Dodi Al Fayed was to make Hasnat jealous. Monckton shared , "It was clear to me she was really missing Hasnat and I think Dodi was a distraction from the hurt she felt from the break-up." Khan would later share , "Diana finally realized that Al Fayed could give her all the things I could not. He had money and could provide the necessary security for her. You never see Al Fayed without six or seven bodyguards around him."
When Diana died, Khan attended her funeral at Westminster Abbey.
Khan married Hadia Sher Ali in May 2006
He moved back to Pakistan sometime in the 2000s. "It is very good to be home. I am quite relieved to be home. My blood pressure is stable – I go fishing, I go for walks. It feels like a sanctuary. It's very peaceful. I can go outside and read a book and enjoy the peace," he said .
In 2006, he married Hadia Sher Ali, a Pakistani descendant of Afghan royalty, in Jhelum, Pakistan. Her brother Sardar Sher Ahmed shared, "He is my brother-in-law now and we are very happy." Yet, the arranged marriage did not last long; the two divorced in July 2008. All Khan has said of the divorce is, "There were multiple reasons. That's really all I can say."
In recent years, Khan was linked to Alexandra Panagoulas, a fellow heart surgeon, and a woman named Somi Sohail.
Khan now resides in the UK
He moved back to the UK, and now lives in Essex. Khan still works as a heart surgeon, and does humanitarian work in Saudi Arabia, his native country of Pakistan, and elsewhere. For a time, he also worked as the head of a cardiac hospital in Malaysia. - Town&Country
