No matter how much time has passed, Princess Diana's untimely death on August 31, 1997 continues to baffle a lot of people today.
Over the last 20 years, there have been books, movies, documentaries and theories based on the Princess' life and death but it doesn't seem to end there.
In fact ABC announced that it will be airing a special, The Last 100 Days of Diana, which "retraces the events and details of Diana's final months through the eyes of close confidants."
We have already been subjected to plenty of revelations about Diana's personal life especially her romantic relationships that came after her divorce from Prince Charles but more recently another one has come to light.
It is alleged that the late Princess became smitten with a British-Pakistani heart surgeon named Hasnat Khan after a fundraiser trip to Pakistan in 1997. They had already met two-years prior at a hospital.
This revelation renders prior claims about her plans to marry Dodi Al Fayed futile.
"She was truly taken with somebody who was so pure of purpose," said Vanity Fair journalist Sarah Ellison. "He was healing people. He wasn't remotely interested in her fame. He obviously wasn't all that interested in his own appearance. He sort of had a paunch. He ate Kentucky Fried Chicken. I mean, it's definitely this sort of aggressive kind of normalcy."
Sources close to the princess shared their knowledge about the relationship with many claiming that she was indeed dating Khan but it was not supposed to become public knowledge.
"Diana fell in love with Hasnat Khan when she went to visit a friend in hospital and there he was, the doctor with the big, limpid, dark eyes," said Tina Brown, the author of "The Diana Chronicles."
It also seemed like Khan reciprocated her feelings, "I think Hasnat was very much in love with Diana," Brown said.
Diana's personal chef, Darren McGrady and her butler, Paul Burrell were also in on the secret affair after Khan "virtually moved into Kensington Palace" while dating the Princess.
"I remember the princess' sort of weekend menu changed slightly," McGrady said. "She was asking for, you know, curries and things like that."
But it wasn't long until trouble began to brew in paradise.
Find out why the relationship hit the rocks in the next page.
Khan was from a religious family that would've opposed his marriage to Diana, according to Brown and Robert Devorik, a friend of the late princess.
She put effort into reaching out to his family in an attempt to get their blessings for the union. This led royal insiders to believe that her trip to Pakistan was more than just about raising money for cancer, it was about seeking Khan's family's approval.
"She sat there, drinking tea with his aunties and grannies and uncles and everything," said Brown. "And they were just absolutely perplexed by this princess in their garden, sitting there having tea."
Despite all her efforts, Khan didn't find the need to progress the relationship as fast as Diana wanted and it wasn't long before they parted ways.
"Hasnat said to me, "˜I don't want to be known as just Mr. Diana. I want my world. I want to be a surgeon,'" added Burrell. "And this is where their two worlds collided."
A short while after, Diana left for her final trip to Paris alongside Dodi Al Fayed. Khan later told police that he tried to reach the princess that fateful night but her number had already been changed.
"I think that if Diana were alive today, we would have remained very good friends, whatever she did and whomever she was with," Khan told police.
"It is a huge loss when someone very close to you dies. I do not know what Diana was like in other relationships but she protected me very well, not just from the media but also from a lot of information. Perhaps she protected me because she thought we had a future together."
Khan is still working as a heart surgeon in London and continues to protect Diana's privacy even in her death.
You can get further insight into what really happened between Diana and Khan when The Last 100 Days of Diana premieres this Sunday, May 7, at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.
Are you surprised by this news? Let us know in the comments!
