Princess Diana’s Ex-Boyfriend Recalls Warning Her That Her “Reputation Was Dead” Before Her Death
Princess Diana’s Ex-Boyfriend Recalls Warning Her That Her “Reputation Was Dead” Before Her Death
Lara WalshMon, September 14, 2026 at 4:26 PM UTC
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Princess Diana at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute dinner dance in Sydney on October 3, 1996Credit: Getty ImagesThe Gist -
Princess Diana’s ex-boyfriend warned her about her reputation shortly before her death in August 1997.
Hasnat Khan had a “discreet,” nearly two-year-long relationship with the late princess before she allegedly ended things with him shortly before her death.
Diana began dating Dodi Al-Fayed, who was also killed in the tragic car accident that claimed her life.
Princess Diana began dating Dodi Al-Fayed just months before the pair tragically died during a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997. However, the late Princess of Wales was previously in a nearly two-year-long relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, who revealed that he warned her that her “reputation was dead” shortly before her death.
Hasnat Khan, Lady Diana’s ex-boyfriend, on January 14, 1997Credit: Getty Images
The private surgeon shared rare insight into his relationship with Diana and her final months in a statement taken in September 2004 as part of the official U.K. coroner’s inquest into her death. The inquest concluded in April 2008, with the jury finding a verdict of unlawful killing due to gross negligence by the driver and the paparazzi.
According to the Daily Mail, Khan warned Diana about her reputation when she broke up with him at Battersea Park, shortly after she went to St. Tropez in the summer of 1997. Diana was photographed on the yacht and at the villa of Dodi’s father, controversial Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who was posthumously accused of sexual misconduct by hundreds of women.
Princess Diana with Magdi Yacoub and Mohammed Al-Fayed during a charity dinner for the Harefield Heart Unit in February 1996.Credit: Getty Images
Khan “felt something was wrong” when he couldn’t get a hold of his then-girlfriend on the trip, and he suspected that Diana had met someone else. “She was not her normal self and she kept looking at her mobile phone,” he said of their meeting in Battersea Park. “I told her that I thought she had met somebody else and it must be someone from Mohamed Al-Fayed’s contingent.”
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“As far as I knew, it could have been a bodyguard or anyone, but I just knew she had changed since she had been away. I was surprised when she denied to me [that] there was anyone else.”
Princess Diana arrives by car to watch a performance of the ballet ‘Swan Lake’ in June 1997 in London, England.Credit: Getty Images
During a second meeting in Battersea Park, Khan said Diana told him that “it was all over between us.” Again, she denied that she’d met anyone else, but he recalled, “I told her I strongly suspected there was someone else and I remember saying to her at the time, ‘You are dead,’ meaning her reputation was dead.”
He explained, “I said this because I was sure that it was someone from Mohamed Al-Fayed’s group and that was how I felt about anyone involved with him.”
Despite Al-Fayed’s poor reputation, Khan said he believed that Diana was drawn to the allure of the family’s wealth and social status. “He had money and could provide the necessary security. You never see Al-Fayed without six or seven bodyguards,” he said, adding that he believed that Diana “finally realized that Al-Fayed could give her all the things I could not.”
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
