Princess Diana was known for her heartfelt visits to hospitals, where she brought joy and hope to those in need.
However, one visit turned into something far more — a passionate love affair that remained shrouded in secrecy for years.
It’s 1995 – just two months prior to the infamous Panorama interview that would forever alter Diana’s life. You might remember that interview, when Princess Diana came clean about her struggles with mental health and the trials of her marriage, capturing the world’s empathy.
Two months before that interview, Diana crossed paths with a handsome doctor, a Muslim whose dark good looks were compared to the charming actor Omar Sharif.
The dashing heart surgeon, Dr. Hasnat Khan, worked at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London. But how did this unlikely pair end up together?
Well, that’s because Joe Toffolo, the patient who underwent surgery, was married to Oonagh Shanley-Toffolo, an Irish nun and acupuncturist who was a close confidante of Princess Diana.
After the initial visit, Diana returned to the hospital almost daily for three weeks, eager to pursue the handsome surgeon. The connection was electric.
Smoked cigarettes and loved KFC
Today, when we look back at countless photos of Diana visiting the hospital, it’s officially stated that she went to cheer up sick children or raise awareness for cystic fibrosis.
That’s definitely true. However, she also had personal reasons. Beneath the surface, her motivations were deeply personal. Because at 35, Diana had discovered a reason to smile once more.
(Photo by Stan Karczmarz/Sygma via Getty Images)
When Diana and Khan started seeing each other, it marked Diana’s most serious involvement since her separation from Prince Charles three years earlier.
But it came shrouded in secrecy. Few knew about their budding romance, a bond that seemed improbable at first glance. Dr. Khan, then 37, was a heart surgeon
that was running fat and smoked a pack of cigarettes a day,
He had penchant for late-night jazz clubs and Kentucky Fried Chicken — an unconventional match for the Princess of Wales.
But this didn’t stop Diana.
”He’s drop-dead gorgeous,” Diana reportedly told Oonagh Toffolo.
Secret messages
To keep their love under wraps, Diana cleverly disguised her messages for Khan, using the alias ”Dr. Armani.” They met in secret, often in unconventional spots to avoid prying eyes.
On one occasion, Diana donned a black wig to sneak into Ronnie Scott’s, a famous jazz club in Soho. In another instance, Khan hid in the boot of a car to slip into Kensington Palace, aided by Diana’s loyal butler, Paul Burrell.
Their romance flourished even during casual outings.
One day, when Diana was feeling low, Khan whisked her away to a pub near Harefield Hospital where he had worked. The name? The Prince of Wales.
”She thought it was hilarious,” he recalled with a chuckle.
Diana was so enamored that she even asked her butler to find a priest who could marry them, despite Khan’s Muslim faith. Their love deepened as they spent time together, sharing laughter and discovering each other’s worlds.
Diana reportedly read books on Islam and cherished a photograph of “my dishy doctor.” She even visited Khan’s family in Lahore, Pakistan, where she embraced their culture and enjoyed a delightful afternoon tea.
Met William and Harry
This whirlwind romance took a more serious turn when Diana introduced Khan to her sons, William and Harry.
She described him as “Mr. Wonderful” and, according to her butler Burrell, she referred to Khan as her soulmate. Friends of Diana stated that he was ”the love of her life” and that she expressed distress when their relationship ended.
Yet, as love stories often go, their fairytale faced obstacles.
The mounting pressure from the media began to take a toll on their relationship. While Diana was accustomed to the limelight, for Khan, the intense scrutiny was daunting.
He feared that pursuing their relationship publicly could jeopardize his career.
They discussed possible solutions, including moving to Pakistan — a plan that nearly came to fruition. Talks of relocating to Australia or South Africa were also on the table, but nothing materialized. According to The Guardian, Diana’s desire for public acknowledgment clashed with Khan’s reluctance, leading to a heartbreaking conclusion: the romance ended in July 1997.
Khan finds out about Dodi
Just a month later, tragedy struck. In the early hours of August 31, 1997, Diana died in a car crash in Paris, alongside her partner Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul.
Khan was blindsided by the news of Diana’s relationship with Dodi, discovering it only after it became public. ”When I found out, I was really mad; mad as hell,” he confessed in a 2012 interview.
Khan attended her funeral at Westminster Abbey.
The shadow of her tragic death looms over him still. “Sometimes I feel like screaming,” Khan shared, reflecting on the emotional turmoil. “There have been very bad times. I have moved on, but it keeps coming back.”
Despite the heartbreak, Khan fondly remembers Diana: ”We all have our drawbacks, but I found her a very normal person with great qualities and some personal drawbacks, like bad habits.”
Hasnat Khan today
In 2006, Khan married Hadia Sher Ali, a 28-year-old woman descended from Afghan royalty, but the couple divorced two years later.
He now lives in the UK, continuing his work as a heart surgeon and engaging in humanitarian efforts in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Reflecting on his life, Khan shared: ”It is very good to be home. I am quite relieved to be home. My blood pressure is stable—I go fishing, I go for walks. It feels like a sanctuary. It’s very peaceful.”
Though the romance between Princess Diana and Dr. Hasnat Khan was short-lived, it remains an interesting chapter in her life, a testament to the complexity of love in the face of royal duty and public scrutiny.
As we remember the Princess, we celebrate not just her legacy, but also the love she shared with a man who saw her for who she truly was—a normal person with extraordinary qualities.
11 Characters That Were Pregnant in Real Life, and What Their Babies Look Like Today
Participating in the filming of a series or movie is hard work since celebrities have to get into the skin of their characters to achieve an authentic interpretation. But that doesn’t mean that actors don’t have real lives behind the scenes. Sometimes, actresses decide to become mothers and already have contracts with production companies. This presents a challenge for them, because of their pregnancy, and for the filmmakers who have to decide whether to incorporate the belly into the plot or simply let the actress cover her belly.
Bright Side made a list of 11 celebrities who played during pregnancy (some of them had to hide their belly) and is revealing what these kids that made things complicated for their mothers and producers look like today.
1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus in Seinfeld
During the shooting of the third season of the popular sitcom, Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus became pregnant with her first child, Henry Hall. Baby Henry was born in July of 1992. However, the actress’s pregnancy was never really a problem for the producers of the series. The simple solution writers came up with was to put her character, Elaine, in baggy clothes and any large garments to hide her belly. Henry is currently 29 years old.
2. Claire Danes in Homeland
You probably know actress Claire Danes because of the amazing performance she delivered as the CIA agent, Carrie Mathison, in the television series, Homeland. However, what’s not often talked about is the fact that she was 8 months pregnant when she completed the filming of the second season. Her pregnancy could not be introduced in the plot due to her character, so they decided to use digital retouching to hide her belly. Her son, Cyrus, was born in December 2012, and he’s now 9 years old.
3. Ellen Pompeo in Grey’s Anatomy
During the filming of the sixth season of one of the most popular drama series ever created, Grey’s Anatomy, producers decided to hide Ellen Pompeo’s pregnancy from the cameras. This was done because, for the writers, this was not the right time for her character, Dr. Meredith, to have a baby, and they wanted to keep that for a later moment. In September 2009, Stella Luna, now 12 years old, was born.
4. Zooey Deschanel in New Girl
Zooey Deschanel was 7 months pregnant when season 5 of the hit series, New Girl,was shot. As you probably remember, the actress had to be momentarily replaced by Megan Fox since producers were only able to hide her belly for no more than a few episodes. Deschanel also had to stay off the series until she returned from postpartum rest. Zooey gave birth to her daughter, Elsie, in August 2015, and today the little girl is 5 years old.
5. Holly Marie Combs in Charmed
Holly Marie Combs, who plays Piper, one of the main characters of the series, Charmed, announced during the shooting of the sixth season that she was pregnant. The producers thought it was better to hide her pregnancy at first. However, after a while, they decided that it was better for her character to actually have a child in the story as well. Apparently, Piper’s pregnancy was planned before the actress knew she was expecting a baby, so that came in handy. Combs gave birth to her first child, Finley Arthur, in 2004, and he’s now 17 years old.
6. Amaia Salamanca in Velvet
Amaia Salamanca’s pregnancy was well-planned when she rejoined the set of Velvet, a show about the compelling Spanish story of a fashion house in Madrid in the late ’50s. Because of this, production had no choice but to make Barbara, her character, pregnant as well. At the age of 28, she gave birth to her first child, a girl named Olivia Varo, in April 2014.
7. Kerry Washington in Scandal
Kerry Washington’s pregnancy happened right in the middle of the shooting of the series, Scandal, in which she played the main character. This unforeseen event forced producers to reduce the number of episodes to hide the actress’s pregnancy that couldn’t fit the schedule of the series. Currently, her daughter, Isabelle, is 7 years old.
8. Kristen Bell in House of Lies
The star of the House of Lies TV series, Kristen Bell, was about 6 months pregnant with her first daughter when the second season of the show was about to be shot. In order to actually film some episodes, the producers had to hire a body double for the scenes in which Bell would have had to show her belly. Her first daughter, Lincoln Bell, is now 8 years old.
9. Cobie Smulders in How I Met Your Mother
Actress Cobie Smulders brought her character, Robin, to millions of small screens thanks to the sitcom, How I Met Your Mother. After fellow actress Alyson Hannigan told the show-runners that she was pregnant, Cobie Smulders discovered that she was also pregnant and told the producers who had to camouflage both of their pregnancies. To disguise Smulders’ belly, producers asked the costume designers to use garments and objects that could hide her abdomen, and they had the character remain seated for most of the scenes that she appeared in. In May 2009, the actress gave birth to her daughter, Shaelyn.
10. Madonna in Evita
Madonna, also known as the Queen of Pop, made the controversial 1996 film in which she played the wife of Argentinian dictator Juan Domingo Perón, Eva Perón. However, Madonna was pregnant with her daughter, Lourdes Leon, back then. It was because of this that the crew of Evita cleverly used costumes and camera shots so that it was not noticeable that Madonna was pregnant with her eldest daughter who is now 24 years old.
11. Lisa Kudrow in Friends
When Lisa Kudrow played Phoebe Buffay on one of the most famous sitcoms, Friends, she became pregnant. This was right about when they started filming the fourth season. The producers decided to include her pregnancy in the story by having Phoebe lend her womb to her brother to conceive triplets because he and his wife couldn’t have kids on their own. Today, her only son, Julian, is 23 years old.
What is your favorite family series? What do you think of women who work while pregnant?
Preview photo credit Friends / Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, and, co-producer, lisakudrow / Instagram
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