In the final years of her life, amidst the very public unraveling of her marriage, Princess Diana found a private sanctuary in a most unexpected place: a hospital. It was there, in 1995, that she met Dr. Hasnat Khan, a handsome Pakistani heart surgeon who would become one of the great loves of her life. Their two-year romance, conducted largely away from the glare of the media, offered Diana a glimpse of the normalcy she so deeply craved.
The meeting seemed like fate. Diana was visiting a friend’s husband at the Royal Brompton Hospital, but her motivations soon became personal. She returned to the hospital almost daily for three weeks, captivated by the surgeon she would later describe to a friend as “drop-dead gorgeous.” Dr. Khan was a brilliant but unconventional match for a princess; he smoked, loved jazz clubs and Kentucky Fried Chicken, and valued his privacy above all else.
To protect their relationship, they devised elaborate schemes worthy of a spy novel. Diana used the alias “Dr. Armani” when leaving messages for him. On one occasion, she wore a black wig to sneak into a Soho jazz club to hear him play the drums. On another, the doctor hid in the trunk of a car to be smuggled into Kensington Palace for a secret visit. Their bond was so strong that Diana, deeply in love, reportedly asked her butler to find a priest who could marry them, despite their different religious backgrounds.
The relationship ultimately succumbed to the intense pressure of public life. While Diana was accustomed to the spotlight, Khan feared it would destroy his career and his peace. They broke up in July 1997. Just a month later, Diana tragically died in Paris. Khan was devastated, both by her death and by the public revelation of her subsequent relationship with Dodi Fayed. He attended her funeral, and though he has since moved on with his life and career, the memory of the princess he saw as a “very normal person” remains a profound and complex part of his past.
