The heart surgeon who once had a discreet two-year relationship with Princess Diana was spotted putting the bins out at his Essex home on Sunday.
Hasnat Khan, 62, who was nicknamed ‘Natty’ and branded ‘Mr Wonderful’ by the Princess, wore a t-shirt, sandals and tracksuit bottoms to carry out the chore.
During their fling, which ended in the summer of 1997, Diana – who is said to have considered him the love of her life – met the surgeon’s family and even considered converting to Islam
Mr Khan, pictured more than 20 years on, no longer sports a moustache and his hair was flecked with grey in the photo, which was taken on Friday.
Heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, 62, who once had a discreet two-year relationship with Princess Diana, was spotted putting the bins out at his Essex home on Sunday
During their fling, which ended in the summer of 1997, Diana – who is said to have considered him the love of her life – met the surgeon’s family during a 1996 visit to Pakistan (pictured) and even considered converting to Islam
The 62-year-old now does humanitarian work in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Pakistan.
Speaking in 2008, Mr Khan broke an 11-year silence about the Princess to say, ‘I found her a very normal person with great qualities.’
The couple met at the Royal Brompton Hospital when Diana was visiting a friend who was recovering from a heart operation.
They then pursued a discreet, two-year affair which ended in the early summer of 1997. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31 of that year.
The Princess’s closest friends previously spoke of her distress when the surgeon ended their relationship.
She had met his family during her 1996 visit to Pakistan, a trip on which she wore a traditional shalwar kameez – baggy trousers paired with a flowing dress.
She is said to have been so smitten at one point that she considered converting to Islam so the pair could marry.
Mr Kahn, pictured above in 1997, was nicknamed ‘Natty’ and branded ‘Mr Wonderful’ by the Princess
She abandoned the idea when Mr Khan decided their relationship would not work long-term.
His father, Abdul Rasheed Khan, said his son had told the family: ‘If I married her [Diana], our marriage would not last for more than a year. We are culturally so different from each other.
‘She is from Venus and I am from Mars. If it ever happened, it would be like a marriage from two different planets.’
In 2013, Diana’s close friend Jemima Khan, who was with her on her 1996 Pakistan trip, said the Princess was so ‘madly in love’ with Mr Khan that she considered moving to Pakistan to be with him
Khan introduced Diana to the charity Chain of Hope, for which he was a volunteer surgeon.
Ten years after Diana’s death, Mr Khan wed Hadia Sher Ali, a Pakistani descendant from Afghan royalty. She was 29 at the time.
Their arranged marriage ended after 18 months.
In 2017, the Daily Mail’s Sebastian Shakespeare reported that Mr Khan had become engaged to a Muslim woman, Somi Sohail, who was many years his junior.
She accompanied him to a ball in London’s Mayfair held by Chain of Hope.
‘Hasnat is very happy,’ a friend told Mr Shakespeare.
‘He hasn’t told us much yet about Somi, but they plan to get married and have children. We are delighted for him.’
Speaking in 2008, Mr Khan broke an 11-year silence about the Princess to say, ‘I found her a very normal person with great qualities’. Pictured: Mr Khan in 1997
In 2013, Diana’s close friend Jemima Khan, who was with her on her 1996 Pakistan trip, said the Princess was so ‘madly in love’ with Mr Khan that she considered moving to Pakistan to be with him.
In a Vanity Fair article titled: ‘The Grandmother Prince George Never Knew’, Ms Khan said Diana sought her advice during fundraising visits to Lahore.
‘She wanted to know how hard it had been for me to adapt to life in Pakistan,’ she told the magazine’s contributing editor Sarah Ellison.
‘Both times she also went to meet [Hasnat’s] family secretly to discuss the possibility of marriage.’
Diana was said to have been very keen to impress Mr Kahn’s immediate family, especially his mother.
However, Ms Khan said the surgeon’s mother – Naheed Khan – would have been very unlikely to approve of her son marrying an English woman.
‘[For a] son to marry an English girl is every conservative Pashtun mother’s worst nightmare,’ Jemima said.
Mr Khan (pictured in 2004) and the Princess pursued a discreet, two-year affair which ended in the early summer of 1997. Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31 of that year
‘You send your son to be educated in England and he comes back with an English bride. It’s something they dread.’
According to Ms Khan, the surgeon also ‘hated the thought of being in the glare of publicity for the rest of his life’ if the pair had ended up marrying.
And in his interview as part of the Lord Stevens inquiry into Diana’s death, he called marriage ‘a ridiculous idea’, adding that he ‘told her that 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.’
The pair’s relationship was depicted in 2013 film Diana, which starred Naomi Watts in the title role.
However, Mr Khan refused to cooperate with the filmmakers.
The pair’s relationship was depicted in 2013 film Diana, which starred Naomi Watts in the title role