The late Princess of Wales, Diana, has always made headlines for one reason or another – let it be her lavish Royal wedding to Prince Charles or her struggle fitting in to the British monarchs or her crumbling marriage and how she longed to break free from the quintessential royal norms.
Everything Diana did was made news; including her much-believed affair with a Pakistani doctor, Hasnat Khan.
The Princess wanted to marry him and was ready to leave Britain, according to her close friend and PM Imran Khan’s former wife, Jemima Goldsmith.
In a 2013 interview with Vanity Fair, titled “The Grandmother Prince George Never Knew”, Jemima spilled beans on how the late Princess was head over heels for Hasnat, who was a settled surgeon in the UK.
Much contrary to her other ‘affairs’, the one with Hasnat wasn’t much publicised. Jemima told the magazine, “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.”
She went on, “She wanted to know how hard it had been for me to adapt to life in Pakistan.”
Diana turned to Jemima for advice in reference to her own marriage another Pakistani (Imran Khan), which made her move to Pakistan.
The Princess of Wales would consult her on living in Pakistan when she paid visits to the country. The PM’s ex-wife also said that Diana visited her twice in Pakistan.
Sarah Ellison, Vanity Fair contributing editor claimed, “Princess Diana was reportedly in a relationship with Hasnat Khan from 1995 to 1997. Diana and Hasnat wanted to get married but the latter’s mother never gave approval. The princess had told two of her friends that she wanted a daughter with him.”
Friends tell Ellison that Diana made a point to get to know Hasnat’s family, specifically seeking the approval of his mother, Naheed.
“For a son to marry an English girl is every conservative Pashtun mother’s worst nightmare,” Jemima told Ellison. “You send your son to be educated in England and he comes back with an English bride. It’s something they dread.”
But according to Ellison, Khan’s decision to not marry Diana may have been the “greatest” gift to the princess.
The friends of Diana with whom Ellison spoke insist that she had broken off the relationship out of frustration that Hasnat wouldn’t agree to marry, or even to go public. Jemima added, “He hated the thought of being in the glare of publicity for the rest of his life.”
“Everybody sells me out,” Diana told a friend the summer of her death as reminisced by Ellison. “Hasnat is the one person who will never sell me out.”
The Princess’ divorce from Princes Charles was finalised in 1996. Diana and Dodi died soon after the holiday in a high-speed car crash on August 31. Diana was just 36 and Dodi was 42.
