AFTER the fairytale relationship soured and the couple failed to live happily ever after, romance seems to have taken a new turn for the divorced Princess Diana. And presented Pakistani cardiologist Dr Hasnat Khan as her knight in the shining armour.
Khan, a Pakistan-born surgeon, is the new man in Princess Dianas life, London newspapers are proclaiming loudly. The doctors humane qualities are what attracted the lady towards him, news reports say. But the question is: how far will the affair win approval in a country where Paki is a word of racist abuse?
The office of Princess Diana has firmly denied a romantic liaison between Khan, 36, and 34-year-old Princess Diana as suggested in a lengthy report carried by The Sunday Mirror newspaper on November 3. The office stated that the Princess knows Khan as she knows many other doctors and that her friendship is purely professional. The Sunday Mirror, however, is sticking by its story. And is not the only one. As early as February, The Sunday Express too had reported that the Pakistani doctor and the English Princess were romantically involved. The doctors relatives were interviewed at length on whether Princess Diana would be accepted in a Muslim family.
The Sunday Mirror carried forward the sensation in its reportage titled, Dis New Love, where Princess Diana was quoted as saying: "I want to marry him and have his babies."
The Sunday Mirror quoted "royal insiders" to substantiate its account. Princess Diana, said the reports, has been confiding in the irrepressible Fergie, Duchess of York, and in Jemima, wife of Imran Khan. The Sunday Mirror account was supposedly based on what Princess Diana told Fergie. What began as a friendship "has blossomed into a deep and passionate love which will shake the foundations of the royal family", declared the report dramatically.
The duo reportedly first met when the doctor performed a bypass surgery on 70-year-old Joseph Toffolo, whose wife Oonagh, 66, is Dianas acupuncturist. A spellbound Diana, said Toffolo, used to "pop in practically every day". "It was a great morale-booster but I didnt expect to see her so often."
"The couple grew closer and closer together," said The Sunday Mirror report and frequently met at Khans flat in Chelsea near the Royal Brompton Hospital where he worked. The attraction was natural for Princess Diana who had declared after her divorce that shed had enough of British men and now wanted to marry a normal man.
The Princess is taking the lead in this romance, say her friends. But Khan is no less a willing partner. A frequent visitor to Dianas home in Kensington Palace, he has also taken her to visit his relatives in England. And flown to Pakistan to tell his family about their love. At his family home in Jhelum, near Lahore, Khans family has approved of a possible alliance between the two despite the fact that Diana will refuse to change her religion or the way she dresses. She will also want to retain her title, and not become Mrs Diana Khan.
Meanwhile, Princess Diana has followed her love, from Lahore where she met his family to a hospital in Sydney where Khan once worked. She also loves to watch him work and is present at several open heart surgery operations which the doctor performs. In fact, a section of the English press has dubbed her a surgery junkie with a morbid obsession for things surgical. But the Princess heart is firmly in it. And she has proclaimed it by wearing a new ring on her engagement finger.
There is, however, another ominous ring to the tale. British society may not respond well to their future king having a Muslim stepfather, according to The Sunday Mirror report. Dianas eldest son William, the heir apparent to the British throne, reportedly finds it difficult to accept any new man in his mothers life. Last year, Islamic fundamentalist Hizb-ut-Tahrir held a rally where it lined up 100 new converts to Islam. Posters across London proclaimed that Queen Elizabeth and Minister John Major were among those invited to Trafalgar Square to embrace Islam. Neither turned up. But that might just change. With a member of the royalty planning to embrace Islam in a way the Hizb-ut-Tahrir can never imagine.
