Pakistani actor Humayun Saeed will play the role of Dr. Hasnat Khan, said to be the love of Princess Diana’s life, in the fifth season of “The Crown” on Netflix. Khan is a British-Pakistani heart surgeon who practiced at London’s Royal Brompton Hospital. “Tenet” star Elizabeth Debicki plays the Princess of Wales in Season 5 of the series, while “The Kite Runner” star Khalid Abdalla has been cast as Dodi Fayed.
Quoting a statement from Khan from Pakistan where he has relocated, entertainment portals like Variety, Deadline and Collider reported that he had considered a life with Princess Diana, “but the situation with the press, who hounded her every move, would make it untenable.” Khan said in the statement “he believed that the only solution was to move to Pakistan and that Diana had discussed the matter with Jemima Goldsmith, who was at the time married to the cricketer and current Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
The Daily Mail reported that Princess Diana and Khan ended their relationship in the summer of 1997, shortly before Diana’s death. Citing a 2004 statement Khan submitted to the Metropolitan Police, Khan stated that he was in a relationship with her from 1995-1997 and that she broke up with him after she met Dodi Fayed at a holiday with Mohammed Al Fayed and his family.
During their fling, “Diana — who is said to have considered Khan the love of her life — met the surgeon’s family during a visit to Pakistan in 1996, and even considered converting to Islam,” he Daily Mail report said. Khan was nicknamed ‘Natty’ and branded ‘Mr. Wonderful’ by Princess Diana.
In a 2008 interview with the Daily Mail, Khan, who broke an 11-year silence about the Princess, describes her as “a very normal person with great qualities.” They met at the Royal Brompton Hospital when Diana was visiting a friend who was recovering from a heart operation. Khan introduced Diana to the charity Chain of Hope, for which he was a volunteer surgeon.
According to the Daily Mail report, ten years after Diana’s death, 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 reported that Khan was engaged to Somi Sohail, who was many years his junior.
Saeed debuted as an actor in 1999 with the Urdu-language film “Inteha” and has enjoyed a distinguished career across film and television. He is known for the adventure-comedy “Jawani Phir Nahi Ani” (2015), for which he won Pakistan’s ARY award for best actor, and its 2018 sequel “Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2.” Other notable roles include the romantic comedy “Punjab Nahi Jaungi” (2017, pictured), which he co-produced, and science fiction film “Project Ghazi” (2019).