Princess Diana dreamed of leaving Britain to start a new life in South Africa with her secret lover, the Pakistani-British cardiologist Dr. Hasnat Khan. This claim has been made in a new memoir by her brother, Charles Spencer.
In the book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, published on Wednesday, Spencer writes that Diana felt life in Britain was becoming increasingly unbearable. Consequently, she planned to lead a relatively quiet and ordinary life with Hasnat Khan in Cape Town.
Diana even considered seeking the assistance of the world-renowned cardiologist Dr. Christiaan Barnard to realize this plan. It was Barnard who had performed the world’s first successful human heart transplant surgery at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
Spencer claims that Diana sought Barnard’s help to see if a suitable job could be arranged for Hasnat Khan at that hospital.
Spencer writes that Diana often made various plans regarding her future, though some of these were merely “simple yet impossible dreams.”
Diana was deeply unhappy when she visited South Africa to see her brother in March 1997. In Spencer’s words, life in England had become “unbearable” for her at that time.
Spencer writes that she had come to see for herself whether this beautiful part of Africa could serve as a safe haven for her and her cardiologist lover.
Spencer claims that Diana had been in a secret relationship with Hasnat Khan for nearly two years. She affectionately called him “Dishy Doc.” Following her separation from the then-Prince Charles, her relationship with Hasnat was considered her most serious romantic involvement.
Diana viewed South Africa as a potential path to a new life. At the time, William and Harry were attending school in Britain.
