Princess Diana had a whirlwind love affair with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan in the years that led up to her tragic death. Though they were no longer together, the late princess’ friends insist that Khan was the love of her life.

"Diana was madly in love with Hasnat Khan and wanted to marry him, even if that meant living in Pakistan," Jemima Khan, a friend of Diana’s, told Vanity Fair. Diana reportedly visited Pakistan on more than one occasion to get to know Hasnat’s family members, and tried to carve out a way to make a new life for herself there.

Unfortunately for the Princess of Wales, Hasnat’s relatives had little enthusiasm for the prospect of her marrying into the family. According to Jemima, for a “son to marry an English girl is every conservative Pashtun mother’s worst nightmare.”

A life in Pakistan, however, was the only way that Hasnat thought it would be possible for their relationship to move forward. Following Diana’s death, he said as much in his official interview with police. "I thought [a secret wedding] was a ridiculous idea," Jemima said, adding that he told Princess Diana “The only way I could see us having a vaguely normal life together would be if we went to Pakistan, as the press don't bother you there."

Sometime after Diana and Khan’s relationship dissolved, she began seeing Dodi Fayed, the son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed. He and Diana were returning from a vacation on the French and Italian Rivieras when they died in the fatal car crash in Paris. Though some claimed the two were engaged at the time of their deaths, Diana’s friends maintain she was hoping Khan would come around to marrying her, and was using Fayed to make him jealous.

Diana, starring Naomi Watts, will focus heavily on the late royal's relationship with Khan. It is set to hit U.K. theaters Sept. 20.

– Chelsea Regan

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