Inside the love story of Hasnat Khan and Princess Diana
Princess Diana was known for her compassion, grace, and unwavering dedication to charitable work. But behind the hospital visits and public appearances was a deeply personal story—one that involved a quiet, unexpected love affair with a man far from the royal spotlight.
In 1995, just two months before her explosive Panorama interview where she opened up about her crumbling marriage and personal struggles, Diana met Dr. Hasnat Khan—a brilliant heart surgeon working at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital. With dark features and a quiet confidence, Khan was often compared to the legendary Omar Sharif. Their meeting wasn’t orchestrated; it happened organically during a hospital visit. Diana had come to support a patient, but she left intrigued by the doctor who seemed entirely uninterested in fame or royalty.
That patient’s wife, Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo—a nun and longtime friend of Diana—was the quiet bridge between the two. After that visit, Diana returned to the hospital nearly every day for three weeks, seeking more than just her usual charity duties. Beneath her poised exterior, she had found someone who made her laugh again—someone who made her feel human.
Dr. Khan was a man of contradictions. He was brilliant, but unpolished. He smoked heavily, loved greasy KFC meals, and spent evenings in smoky jazz clubs. Hardly the polished aristocrat anyone expected to see at Diana’s side. But she loved that about him. “He’s drop-dead gorgeous,” she once gushed to Oonagh. More importantly, he was real.
To protect their romance from the relentless tabloid machine, Diana used clever tactics. She sent him secret messages under the name “Dr. Armani,” snuck into jazz clubs wearing wigs, and even helped him sneak into Kensington Palace by hiding him in the boot of a car. Her butler, Paul Burrell, was a trusted accomplice.
Despite the secrecy, their relationship blossomed. Diana invited Khan to casual outings, like the pub humorously named “The Prince of Wales.” She was smitten. She read books about Islam to better understand his culture and even traveled to Lahore, Pakistan, where she met his family and embraced their traditions with grace and respect. Their bond was deep, emotional, and sincere. She called him “Mr. Wonderful.” To friends, he was “the love of her life.” Diana even introduced him to her sons, William and Harry, hoping to one day bring her two worlds together.
But love doesn’t exist in a vacuum.
While Diana was no stranger to the spotlight, Khan found it unbearable. The media frenzy that followed Diana like a shadow threatened to consume them. They explored the idea of moving abroad—Pakistan, Australia, South Africa—all potential escapes. But every plan faltered. Diana longed to live freely and openly, while Khan valued privacy and feared the consequences to his career and family.
Eventually, the weight of their conflicting lives became too heavy. In July 1997, they ended their relationship.
A month later, the world was stunned by tragedy. In the early morning of August 31, Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris alongside Dodi Fayed, the man she had briefly dated after her split from Khan. The news hit Khan like a tidal wave. He hadn’t known about Dodi. “I was mad—mad as hell,” he later admitted. He attended her funeral, quietly grieving the woman he had loved in secret.
Years later, Khan still struggles with the emotional echoes of their time together. “Sometimes I feel like screaming,” he confessed. Though he’s since moved on—marrying (and later divorcing) a woman from Afghan royalty—his memories of Diana remain vivid. “She was a normal person,” he reflected. “She had great qualities and, like all of us, some flaws.”
Today, Hasnat Khan lives in the UK. He continues to work as a respected heart surgeon and volunteers his time for humanitarian causes in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. His life is quieter now. “It feels like a sanctuary,” he said of his home. “I go fishing, I go for walks. My blood pressure is finally stable.”
Their love story was short-lived, complicated, and ultimately unfulfilled—but it was real. A princess and a doctor from different worlds who found in each other what they couldn’t find anywhere else: authenticity, vulnerability, and a quiet kind of love untouched by titles or cameras.
In remembering Diana, we often focus on the glamour, the heartbreak, and the headlines. But her time with Hasnat Khan reminds us that, at her core, she longed for the same thing we all do—someone who truly sees us. And for a time, she found that in him.