The heart surgeon who broke her heart: for whom Princess Diana was going to become a Muslim
'13.04.2021'
Source: Woman.ru
Princess Diana has visited Pakistan twice, recently followed by Prince William and Duchess Catherine. But not only charity trips and official meetings were associated with this country. What do we know about the doctor of Pakistani origin, for whom Lady Dee almost left her native England forever?
When it comes to the personal life of Princess Diana, they primarily recall the magnificent wedding of an 19-year-old girl drowning in silk and lace. Then the ashes come to mind, remaining on the site of a seemingly fabulous marriage with Prince Charles. And only then - the interior of the black Mercedes, in which Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed rushed along the Seine towards the Alma tunnel on the fateful August night of 1997, writes Woman.ru.
Longtime fans of the Queen of People’s Heart can recall Diana’s five-year romance with riding instructor James Hewitt. The red hair of a stately cavalry officer served as an occasion for rumors and speculation, because it was his part of the British who considered Prince Harry to be the biological father, despite the fact that Diana and James denied everything. Only a few will remember the foggy figure, which seems to be behind the scenes of all the numerous love stories of Lady Dee.
This is not at all about the person of royal blood and not about the mysterious billionaire. For two years, a completely ordinary person owned the heart of Diana. His name was Hassnath Khan, and he worked as a heart surgeon at Royal Brompton Hospital in London.
Lady Dee met him in the summer of 1995, when she came to visit a friend. She immediately lost her head and, as soon as the pretty doctor left the room, she admitted to her friend that she had fallen in love. Later, one of the many anonymous insiders will claim that Diana came up with a nickname for her lover. She fondly called him Natty or Mr. Wonderful. Hassat also admired the fact that, unlike many of her royal acquaintances, he really helped ordinary people and saved lives. Diana was subdued.
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Their romance proceeded swiftly. Wanting to learn more about the homeland of her beloved Mr. Wonderful, Dee went to Pakistan, got acquainted with the local culture and stuffed her wardrobe with exquisite shalwar-kamiz. The scandalous divorce with Prince Charles was already behind, so she completely disappeared into a new relationship, rushing into them with her head, as if into a whirlpool.
“There was no hierarchy in our relationship. She was not a princess, I was not a doctor, ”Khan said.
Hassat was different from everyone with whom Diana was before. She offered to buy him a new car, but the doctor refused. Least of all did he want his photographs to appear in newspapers with loud headlines in the style of “New Lady Dee's New Boyfriend”. Many men in his place would have been delighted with the rapid popularity - it is hard to believe that the British, who wished their beloved happiness, would have accepted Khan with hostility. Many, but not Hasnat.
Diana was curious about what her lover was doing. She, who in her youth did not show much interest in studying, suddenly became seriously interested in cardiology! Thick "Grey's Anatomy" took pride of place on her bedside table. And in April of 1996, the tabloids flooded the news: Lady Dee, wearing a surgical mask, watched the doctors perform a complex open-heart surgery on a seven-year-old boy from Africa.
The media following Diana on the heels remained blind. For a long time no one guessed about the new hobby of the “queen of human hearts”. Sometimes lovers met right in the hospital, where Lady Dee met her man after hours of night shifts. Despite this, each time she managed to hide from reporters. Only once she was photographed around midnight near the hospital.
Diana decided to play ahead of the curve. She calmly asked the paparazzi for a phone, called one of the tabloids and said that she was visiting hopelessly ill patients.
Diana dreamed of a marriage - of course, a secret, because Hasnat did not want to publicize their relationship. For his sake, she was ready to renounce her faith and convert to Islam. The princess studied the Qur'an, kept a photograph of Khan at home and dreamed about the day when she would say the cherished “Yes!”
This is not to say that their relationship was cloudless. When information about the affair of Diana and Hasnat was nevertheless leaked bit by bit in the media, they seriously quarreled and did not talk for three weeks.
The final discord in their relationship was made by the Hasnat family. Khans, traditionists belonging to the Pashtun people, were horrified by the contact of their eldest son. Any other parents in their place would have been happy and would have welcomed the “queen of human hearts,” but not relatives of the cardiac surgeon.
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In an interview with the Daily Express, Hassat’s father said:
“He will not marry her. We are already looking for his bride. She must at least be a Muslim from Pakistan. ”
That was all said. But Diana did not give up. As the former wife of the Prime Minister of Pakistan and a friend of Lady Di Jemima Khan later told Vanity Fair, the princess twice sought meetings with her family when she visited the country to win their favor. Diana was ready to love the whole world with the exception of a few people. Alas, tradition was more important to them than the happiness of his son.
Perhaps Hasnat became increasingly aware that the divide between them was widening. On the one hand, reporters pressed him, and on the other, adamant parents. In any case, he prefers not to talk about what prompted him to break off relations with his beloved woman. One thing is certain - he left Diana with a broken heart. All her dreams of a serene life with a loved one were crushed. Grief pushed her to an impulsive act.
Allegedly, she told her friend Rosa Moncton that the relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed, which broke out shortly after breaking up with Khan, began only to make Mr. Wonderful jealous. But whether it was so or not, hardly anyone knows.
Of course, news about the relationship between Diana and Hasnat Khan eventually leaked to the press. They were even interested in their novels in the film industry, and in the 2013 the film “Diana: A Love Story” was released.
The film, based on the book by Kate Snell, "Diana: Her Last Love", was unsuccessful. He collected just 21,5 million dollars at the box office with an 15 million budget. And this, despite Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews in the lead roles! The only thing the tape had in abundance was negative reviews. Inveterate film critics and ordinary spectators were unanimous.
The Mirror claimed that Lady Dee would have convincingly played Wesley Snipes in a light wig. The Screen Daily review was more supportive: it claimed that Watts (two-time Academy Award nominees) was buried under clumsy dialogs and a weak script.
The last nail in the lid of the "coffin" was hammered by Hasnat Khan himself, who was quick to ask if he would give a chance to this film. He laughed.
The doctor’s response was categorical: “Under no circumstances will I watch this film. Not now, not ever. Most of the tape is based on gossip, and even if I came to the cinema, I would tell myself every second: “This is a lie, everything was wrong.” I could not force myself to go through such an execution. ”
At the same time, the film producer clung to the straw to the last and insisted that Khasnat almost blessed the picture after meeting with Kate Snell in the late nineties. The writer prayed for a meeting with the doctor, and over a cup of coffee Khan firmly told her that he would not talk heart to heart with her. He was not going to talk about his relationship with Diana, much less let someone profit from the love of the late princess.
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Kate showed perseverance worthy of a better application. Having decided to go roundabout, she innocently asked if she should not in this case communicate with relatives or friends of Hasnat. He did not supply her with addresses and telephones, only noticed that he could not interfere with her. And let the insistent lady on the threshold or not, let his relatives decide.
Hassnath had a hard time. Unaccustomed to media attention, he was faced with pressure from ubiquitous journalists and personally Kate Snell, who had bombarded him with letters for many years. Filled with requests to meet and talk, sheets of paper were sent to the trash. Khan did not respond to any of these messages, no matter how persuaded. Snell did not give up.
She wrote that the film will reflect how Diana found her happiness, and what an important role relations with Khan occupied in her life. The doctor did not give in to these persuasions.
Hassat felt empty when he heard from the police that his cell phone had been hacked. And more than once. In both incidents, large tabloids were suspected. For him, a closed man, all this was unbearable.
Every year, at the end of August, Hassat left the United Kingdom in order not to hear phone calls and not see new letters in the mailbox - the rumors still did not subside, and especially unprincipled reporters did not lose hope that the doctor would one day break under the pressure and give slack. Maybe he agrees to accept a substantial fee or decides that the story has already been covered by the dust of the times and no longer causes a former response in his heart. Who knows.
Yet Hasnat remains adamant. He gives interviews extremely rarely, and all his words are carefully verified. No colorful details that tabloids usually relish can be expected from him.
“Usually I’m not talking about close people - friends and family. That’s what I am by nature, ”he told The Telegraph.
Khan has no doubt: it is extremely unfair of him to talk about the princess, when she can no longer answer him. Years have changed the physician's appearance, he turned gray and replenished, but time is powerless in front of his persistent character. In 2013, Khan spoke about his dream, which the princess fully shared, and this was almost his only revelation. She and Diana often talked about moving to Pakistan. There, Hasnat wanted to open a charity clinic for cardiovascular diseases, while Diana planned to focus on helping women.
Some of the plans still came true. Hassat Khan opened the Abdul Razzaq Welfare Trust Hospital in the village of Badlot near the city of Jelam in northern Pakistan.
In May 2006, Khasnat tried to improve his personal life by marrying an 29-year-old Pakistani woman from a good family, whose candidacy did not raise doubts among his parents. However, the marriage lasted only a year and a half.
Whether he visits relatives in his native Jelam or saves lives at a university hospital in Essex - one thing remains unchanged. The bright star in the sky of Hasnat Khan went out, and nothing can be done about it. He found the strength to live on, but his relationship with Diana and their tragic ending probably left a deep mark in his heart.
