The Crown Season 5 released last Friday and brought forth a host of new characters, that the audience have been rather familiar with. The historical drama chronicles the reign of Queen Elizabeth II and the latest season focused on the politics that surrounded Princess Diana. It also throws light on her 1996 interview with Martin Bashir, her relationship with the British Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan, as well as Dodi Fayed. Humayun Saeed plays the role of Khan in the show. Season 5 sees the blooming romance between the two of them, while things turn dark for the British royal family.
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Humayun Saeed in The Crown. (Photo: Netflix)
Who was Hasnat Khan?
While there has been much discussion about Diana’s relationship with Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, many forget that she was romantically involved with Hasnat Khan. The two met in 1995, when Diana accompanied her friend, Oonagh Toffolo, whose husband was recovering from heart surgery at a hospital. In a 2021 interview with the Daily Mail, Khan talked about his relationship with Diana, saying that after they met at the hospital, their friendship escalated into romance and they were reportedly dating for two years. According to The Guardian, Diana had asked her butler Paul Burrell to find a priest, who could marry her to Khan, a Muslim, and that she had also introduced him to her sons William and Harry and visited his parents’ home in Pakistan. She was also known to have described Khan as a ‘wonderful man’. The relationship ended as Khan did not want his private life to be constantly in the limelight. Shortly after, Diana began to be involved with Dodi Fayed.
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Humayun Saeed playing the character of Dr Hasnat Khan exceptionally well and likeable Dr Hasnat Khan in The Crown. Loved watching this show @iamhumayunsaeed pic.twitter.com/7MMPM7t9xc
— Ambreeeen.. (@Nostalgicc_A) November 13, 2022
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“My main concern about us getting married was that my life would be hell because of who she was,” he later told the police, as quoted by Vogue UK, following her death. “I knew I would not be able to live a normal life and if we ever had children together, I would not be able to take them anywhere or do normal things with them.”
Hasnat Khan had stayed with Diana at Kensington Palace the night before she went to Paris with Dodi Fayed. “After a few days, I felt something was wrong,” he added. “I told her I thought something was wrong because of the way she had been acting, but she just said that because of the geography of where she was, she was having problems getting reception on her phone.” They met again and Khan realised that there was another man in her life, which she denied. “At the end of our meeting in Battersea Park, we arranged to see each other again the following day at Kensington Palace. It was at that second meeting that Diana told me that it was all over between us.”
In August 1997, Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed were killed in a car crash in Paris.
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The Crown Season 5
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The Crown Season 5 sees the intimate romance between Diana and Hasnat Khan, and also sets up her eventual meeting with Dodi Fayed. The show portrays their secret romance and their struggle to keep their dates private, with Diana disguising herself in a wig. Khan is seen as a rather simple and unassuming person, who somehow gets entangled in Diana’s notoriously public life. Season 6 would focus on Diana’s last two months with Fayed and the conspiracies surrounding her car crash.
