Princes Diana's love life was no secret. From her marriage to Prince Charles to her affairs, her love life always remained a tabloid fodder. But, amid all the buzz there was one guy who caught Diana's full attention-- Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.
Diana's two-year romance with Dr Khan is still one of the most talked about affairs. There were even reports that she begged him to marry her. So who is Hasnat Khan?
Here are 7 things to know about the Pakistani heart surgeon who stole Diana's heart.
How did he meet Diana?
Khan met Diana in 1995 when the Princess of Wales visited London's Royal Brompton Hospital to meet a friend's husband, who was recovering from a heart surgery. According to Vanity Fair, Diana was instantly attracted towards him and told her friends that time, "Oonagh, isn't he drop-dead gorgeous?"
Khan was the most unlikely character to be Diana's lover
According to Diana's butler Paul Burrell, Khan was not sporty, not handsome and not even wealthy to be Diana's lover. However, the Princess of Wales loved him because of his nature.
"When you think of the kind of men Diana must have met or been with or seen — here is a man who is completely and totally selfless. She said she'd never met anybody like him," a friend of Diana told Vanity Fair.
A secret affair
Diana and Khan's romance was a hush-hush affair. She used to leave messages for him at the hospital using the alias Dr Arman. They even avoided media by meeting at unusual places and at time Diana wore a black wig to escape detection, The Guardian reported.
He was Diana's soulmate
Diana described Khan as Mr Wonderful and some believed he was her soulmate. Burrell said she begged Khan to marry her and he was even asked to find a priest for the marriage ceremony. She even visited Khan's parents in Pakistan.
Khan's parents had given their blessings
While some reports suggest Khan's parents were against this affair, the heart surgeon had said his family never looked down upon their relationship.
"One thing I will say is that the idea that my parents didn't agree with my relationship with Diana is rubbish. Only myself and my closest friends knew what really went on in our relationship," he told The Sun.
"Both my parents, grandmother and all close relatives who met Diana liked her very much and my parents and grandmother never objected to our relationship. They were very much happy for us to make a decision ourselves and made it clear they would support it 100 per cent. We both had their blessing."
Diana and Khan's relationship ended
According to the ABC News special The Last 100 Days of Diana, the People's Princess ended her relationship with Khan because he refused to go public.
"I think Hasnat was very much in love with Diana, but had really reached the end of his tether because Diana pushed him and pushed him and pushed him to go public and say we're a couple, and he wouldn't," Tina Brown, the author of The Diana Chronicles, said.
"Even after two years, the relationship wasn't leading to a meaningful progression or conclusion and that was the main stress on both of us," Khan told Daily Mail in 2013.
He called Diana the night she died in the car accident
Khan tried to call Diana on the night she died in the car accident. Richard Kay, Diana's friend, revealed in The Last 100 Days of Diana about Khan's phone calls to her.
"I think he was worried about her. I think he was worried, as were a lot of her friends, about what she'd got herself into," Kay said.
