World

Documentary Says Doc Diana's Love

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

August 13, 2000 / 10:52 AM EDT / CBS

There are new strong claims that the man Princess Diana really wanted to marry wasn't department store heir Dodi Al Fayed, reports CBS News Reporter Pamela McCall, but a Pakistani heart surgeon.

The story is in a television documentary airing Tuesday in Britain.

The former captain of Pakistan's Cricket team says Diana was deeply in love with doctor Hasnat Khan. Imran Khan claims Diana asked him in May 1997 to act as a go between to broker a marriage, even though the couple had split up after two years. The meeting with Doctor Khan didn't happen because of the Princess's death in car crash that August.

The claim backs up those made by other friends of Princess Diana that her relationship with Dodi Fayad was only a fling to make her true love jealous. Relatives of Doctor Khan also appear in the documentary, speaking openly of his love for the Princess.

Before the Princess was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997, she was reportedly in a relationship with the son of Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed, Dodi, who also died in the accident.

After the accident, Al Fayed said the princess and his son had been planning to marry.

Imran doubts it.

"It was clear that she was deeply in love with Dr. Hasnat and I just don't think she could have got over it that quickly," he said.

The Channel 5 documentary, called Diana: Her Last Love says that while the princess was seen with Fayed before her death, she was still in touch with Hasnat's family advising them not to read anything significant into the relationship.

Ashfaq Ahmed, Hasnat's great-uncle, tells the program: "I can say with certainty that he (Hasnat) was greatly in love with her, and he was very much impressed by her personality. Not by her beauty - by her humanity."

In June 1997, British newspapers reported that the princess and Hasnat had become engaged, a story that was denied by her spokesman.

But a book by Diana's psychic healer and confidante Simone Simmons in November 1998 said that the princess and Hasnat had conducted a passionate affair between 1995 and 1996.

It said the relationship ended because Hasnat was not comfortable about taking on a highly public role with the princess and her young sons.