Diana's 'True Love' Speaks for the First Time

Diana's butler testified she truly was in love with Hasnat Khan when she died.

ByABC News via logo
February 12, 2009, 2:46 PM

Jan. 15, 2008 — -- When the people's princess died, it was ex-flame Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani surgeon, whom Diana truly still loved and not Dodi Fayed, who was just a rebound, Diana's former personal butler Paul Burrell testified Monday.

"This was the man she loved more than any other," Burrell told the court. Her relationship with Fayed was an attempt to make Khan jealous and a rebound from their breakup, he said.

The Pakistani heart surgeon, who supposedly carried on a two-year relationship with Princess Diana, said he hopes her former butler's testimony will put to rest any questions people had about his relationship with the princess.

"I hope it settles all the questions, which have been asked, and for me, I think it's important that this is the end of it," Khan said, when he broke his 10-year silence on the subject.

Khan, who attended Diana's funeral, broke up with her just two months before she died. She touted him as "Mr. Wonderful."

"Diana loved him and I think he loved her, but he wasn't prepared to give up his hard-earned career," said royal author Robert Jobson.

Best-selling author Tina Brown said Khan broke his decade-long silence because he was tortured by the subject.

"He was unable to have any piece of mind from any piece of the week," Brown said on "Good Morning America" today. "I think he just felt the pressure now to clear his position to move on."

Khan wasn't prepared for life in the public eye on the arm of the most photographed woman in the world.

"He knew [their relationship] was only possible because it was secret and Diana valued him so much she was able to keep it secret," Brown said. "Diana was very good at keeping secrets."

During Burrell's testimony, he said Diana asked him to explore the possibilities of a secret wedding to Khan and added the princess' mother called her a whore for messing around with Muslim men.

"She really believed she could marry Khan," Brown said. "She did continue to have that fantasy."

This was in spite of the fact Khan knew he could never marry Diana and found the idea of a secret wedding impossible and absurd, Brown added.