PRINCESS Diana was “very much in love” with lover Hasnat Khan and planned to marry him, her butler Paul Burrell told her inquest today.
The High Court heard today how Diana’s royal aide had approached the Father Anthony Parsons, a Carmelite priest from a Catholic church near Kensington Palace discuss a possible marriage between a Christian and a Muslim.
The former aide said no names were mentioned in the discussion but “he knew exactly who I was talking about, he didn’t know the man’s name”.
Mr Burrell's evidence, which has been eagerly anticipated, goes against Mohamed Al Fayed's who has always maintained that his son Dodi was going to marry the Princess.
Butler Burrell, who worked for the Princess for 10 years, said that although the Princess and Mr Khan split up a few weeks before she met Dodi, he believed she still “held a candle” for the heart surgeon, and suggested she was making him jealous with her new relationship.
Paul Burrell worked for Diana for 10 years
The former butler also said that Mr Khan had been introduced to Prince William and Prince Harry, and had become part of the “fixtures and fittings” at the Palace.
The royal aide had also begun preparing rooms at Diana’s Kensington Palace home for Mr Khan.
When asked by Ian Burnett QC whether she “contemplated” marriage with Mr Khan, the former butler replied: “Yes, she did.”
He added: “She asked me if it was possible to arrange a private marriage between her and Hasnat Khan.”
Mr Burrell was asked to comment on the relationship between Diana and Mr Khan, who at the time was working at the Royal Brompton hospital in Chelsea, west London.
He replied: “Well, the Princess said that this was her soulmate, this was the man she loved more then any other and it was a very deep spiritual relationship.
“I witnessed it at first hand and they were very much in love.”
He added: “It was known in the family, in fact William and Harry were (familiar) with Dr Khan and met him on regular occasions in Kensington Palace. He was a regular fixture and fitting in the Palace.”
Mr Burrell agreed with Mr Burnett’s suggestion that Diana was “laying the groundwork” with her children in bringing the surgeon to meet them.
He added: “The Princes were the most important things in her life, she wouldn’t do nothing without consulting (them), she was adamant William and Harry would be friendly and know and grow to like Mr Khan before a marriage took place,”
He explained that plans were also in place to set up “quarters” for the surgeon within Diana’s Palace home.
Diana was "very much in love" with Khan
The couple spent 18 months together but broke up in 1997 shortly after Diana’s July 1 birthday after a meeting in Battersea Park in south London late one night.
Mr Burrell told the hearing: “The Princess came home that night very distressed... He (Khan) didn’t want to become a public name. He didn’t want to become known and they had reached a stalemate situation.”
Later the butler had a meeting with the surgeon: “He explained to me one day he worked very hard and had come from nothing to achieve what he had (and had now) become an eminent heart surgeon.
“He was achieving what he always dreamed of and wasn’t prepared to put that on hold for the Princess.”
He added: “I don’t think that a relationship that lasted for 18 months was gone overnight. The Princess was still holding a candle for Dr Khan.”
Mr Burrell was asked about Diana’s subsequent relationship with Mr Fayed and the fact that it was conducted on the public stage and was captured by photographers.
The former royal aide replied that the Princess knew the surgeon would see those pictures in the national press.
He added: “I knew the way she thought and felt about people and the way sometimes she would behave."
The butler, who said today that he was Diana's 'rock,' said he had seen a collection of correspondence between her and her father-in-law the Duke of Edinburgh.
But he dismissed the suggestion that the letters had been “nasty” or disapproving.
And, in an apparent reference to claims that he ordered her death, he said: “Why would he want to harm her?”
He told the court that the letters, written in 1992 at the time of Diana’s divorce from the Prince of Wales, were “sharp” but not nasty and should be taken in context, reflecting a “healthy banter” between the two.
“When they arrived they were startling, the Princess didn’t expect them and they did seem to be rather cutting from a member of your family,” he said.
“But they are frank and supportive and do contain constructive criticism.”
He went on: “The Princess did not particularly like what she was told but Prince Philip was always frank.”
Mr Burrell doubted claims by psychic healer Simone Simmons who said she was shown two letters - one typed, one handwritten - around 1994 or 1995 in which Prince Philip made disparaging remarks.
“It is not Prince Philip’s style,” he said.
“He would not write such disparaging notes about the Princess on hand-written or on typed letters.
“Prince Philip is not a nasty man.”
He told the court he had seen all of Diana’s correspondence - even letters from the Queen and heads of state - which he helped file, but had never seen notes such as those described by Ms Simmons.
“Prince Philip is not known for diplomacy but he certainly wouldn’t have written nasty notes to the Princess. He was fond of the Princess,” he said.
Mr Burrell, who met his wife Maria while he was the Queen’s footman and she was Prince Philip’s maid, added: “I know Prince Philip very well, having looked after the Queen for so many years, and he has stayed strong beside the Queen all the time and he was very kind and good to my wife when she was his maid.
“I can tell you that it is not Prince Philip’s nature, plus the Princess was mother of his grandchildren. Why would he want to harm her? It’s not possible.”
Describing Diana’s relationship with her former father-in-law in later years, he said: “They had a mutual understanding.
“The Princess knew she was going to go on her (own) path and Prince Philip may not have liked some of the things that the Princess did, but he tried to understand her the best he could.”
Mr Burrell had a meeting with the Queen after Diana’s death in which she told him to “be careful” as there are “powers at work in this country," he said.
It is unclear what the Queen meant and Mr Burrell never asked her to explain during the 90-minute meeting.
Mr Burrell said the Queen’s concern reflected that she is “just a wonderful lady”.
He told the court: “I think it was a general ’be careful warning’ over many issues.
“This was unprecedented times and as the Queen said to me, no one has been as close to a member of my family and this has never happened before.
“The Queen is a good, kind, devout lady and she looks after members of her staff who look after her on a daily basis. As I had done to her, she extended me the kindness of looking after me.”
The Princess was convinced that she was being bugged and, according to Mr Burrell, it could easily have been true.
Diana was convinced that her mobile phones, land lines and home at Kensington Palace had been bugged.
Her apartment was swept for devices and she even took all the mirrors down after being told there were hi-tech gadgets which could allow conversations to be listened to via mirrors.
One hunt for bugging devices even led to the carpet and floorboards in her sitting room being take up. Nothing was found, Mr Burrell said.
ADULTERY AND ISLAM ARE UNACCEPTABLE IN ACCORDANCE TO THE BIBLE ARE SINS AND SHOULD NOT BE MENTIONED IN THE ROYAL FAMILY
15.01.08, 12:21am
It is not surprising, why Islam is almost the state religion in Britain. In the first instance, she was the wife of a future King of Great Britain to fall from grace and to fell in love with the most peaceful religion the world has ever known, Islam.
And for her to be living in the palace and have Muslim men smuggled into the palace in a car booth by Royal butler for the purpose of desecrating the marital bed, torture and abuse the innocence of the her children was the most terrible and dreadful thing to do, that I felt sorry for the children to be subjected to such early vile impression and indignities.
Now the yet to be or not to be has followed suit by entering a Mosque and praying in a Mosque in a battle to convince the Islamists that Islam have come to stay here. Hence orchestrated attempt by the COF hierarchy to prepare Britain and nation towards an embrace with the religion of peace.
Not surprising the position of the Church of England and most of its Bishops positions in support of both sharia and Muslim call to prayer from a microphone in Britain.
They are saying Islam forward ever and backward never. Yet the Muslims can never allow them a foot in their own Islamic state. You conform and obey to their culture in Muslims countries, never allows you to build cathedral or churhes and synagogues but for yours that is here in Britain the muslims buy up church buildings and then transforms them into a Mosques, you give churches in place of Mosques. It is a one way scenario and a travesty.
It is a disgraceful thing for a married woman to be living with her husband to have men suitors smuggled into palace by Paul the butler inside the car booth and covered up with a garment for a sinful pleasure of adultery in her husband's matrimonial home, irrespective of whatever her grievances against her husband might be.
Adultery is a sin against God and sin against her children, sin against her own body, soul and spirit and a sin against the public who witnessed the marriage vow that ''I vow to the to keep my body solely to you come rain or come sunshine. Lots to day are ignorant of the damning consequences of the sin of adultery.
It is as if one is playing with the danger of total confinement into the devil’s hell fire where they would burn in flame of sulphur and brimstone for all eternity.
It is immoral and despicable. It makes me want to shed tears for the dignity of her children whom this woman even in her death she had abused. Her children have suffered the most agonising torture by seeing their mother hopping into bed with anything in trouser. It is a shame and should never have happened.
I am sorry to the female folks who would be cross with me for conveying my feelings in this way, it is because I felt jealousy and outrage of betrayal and abuse by the innocence of her sons to indignities and shame, and I can never countenance and accept this from my mother or else I would publicly disown her.
People in love do strange things, sometimes, people meet at the wrong time and fall in love, even though it will fail. It does not mean that love is dead and gone, sometimes the path crosses again and the love becomes what it was meant to be. I think that Dr Khan was truly in love with her but, he needed to be his own man before he became her man, now he is his own man but she is not here and he tortures himself for losing her, he is also a heart surgeon and he must wonder if he could have saved her in the aftermath of the accident. He will always be the man who could have been, if it's true that Diana was pregnant, the timescale puts Dr Khan in the frame, not Dodi Fayed. the pictures of her on holiday with Dodi, showing the so called bump were too soon to be Dodi's baby, maybe there was a baby, maybe it was Dr Kahn's, perhaps that's why Dodi Fayed was going to be the fall guy, falling in love with a woman who every man that ever looked in her eyes did. I looked in her eyes in 91, I understand the way she was able to convey everything with her eyes....
I DON'T THINK THAT ANYONE AFTER READING ABOUT THE LOVE STORY...
14.01.08, 10:25pm
I don't think that anyone after reading about the love story between Diana and Hasnat Khan could ever doubt the love that she had for him or the possibility that she wanted to marry him. However this revelation does not mean that she did not come to love Dodi.
Lots of people when they have lost or moved on from a person they love or have loved do manage to fall in love again, it is nature.
I do not think that it was Diana's intention to fall in love with Dodi, in fact it probabaly never even entered her head, but as the Fayed holiday wore on she probably saw qualities in Dodi that she found very attractive. All the Hollywood stars and celebrities who knew Dodi have spoken with the highest regard about him saying that he was a good, kind, gentle, and sensitive man. These traits would have appealed to Diana as she possessed the very same qualities.
They also had a lot in common with the fact they was both bought up without their mothers.
Burrell in denying Diana's love for Dodi is his way of dancing to the tune of the royal establishment in order to make good with them. We all know he wants to make his mark in the world as a man of royal importance. I don't think that he realises that he has now not only betrayed Diana but her millions of fans the world over. He will have now lost their respect and support forever.
The only reason that Diana's love for Dodi is being undermined and denied is simply because his father Mr Al Fayed is the arch enemy of the establishment. Had anyone elese been his father then all would have been revealed. How despicable is that?
Video 
ADULTERY AND ISLAM ARE UNACCEPTABLE IN ACCORDANCE TO THE BIBLE ARE SINS AND SHOULD NOT BE MENTIONED IN THE ROYAL FAMILY
15.01.08, 12:21am
It is not surprising, why Islam is almost the state religion in Britain. In the first instance, she was the wife of a future King of Great Britain to fall from grace and to fell in love with the most peaceful religion the world has ever known, Islam.
And for her to be living in the palace and have Muslim men smuggled into the palace in a car booth by Royal butler for the purpose of desecrating the marital bed, torture and abuse the innocence of the her children was the most terrible and dreadful thing to do, that I felt sorry for the children to be subjected to such early vile impression and indignities.
Now the yet to be or not to be has followed suit by entering a Mosque and praying in a Mosque in a battle to convince the Islamists that Islam have come to stay here. Hence orchestrated attempt by the COF hierarchy to prepare Britain and nation towards an embrace with the religion of peace.
Not surprising the position of the Church of England and most of its Bishops positions in support of both sharia and Muslim call to prayer from a microphone in Britain.
They are saying Islam forward ever and backward never. Yet the Muslims can never allow them a foot in their own Islamic state. You conform and obey to their culture in Muslims countries, never allows you to build cathedral or churhes and synagogues but for yours that is here in Britain the muslims buy up church buildings and then transforms them into a Mosques, you give churches in place of Mosques. It is a one way scenario and a travesty.
It is a disgraceful thing for a married woman to be living with her husband to have men suitors smuggled into palace by Paul the butler inside the car booth and covered up with a garment for a sinful pleasure of adultery in her husband's matrimonial home, irrespective of whatever her grievances against her husband might be.
Adultery is a sin against God and sin against her children, sin against her own body, soul and spirit and a sin against the public who witnessed the marriage vow that ''I vow to the to keep my body solely to you come rain or come sunshine. Lots to day are ignorant of the damning consequences of the sin of adultery.
It is as if one is playing with the danger of total confinement into the devil’s hell fire where they would burn in flame of sulphur and brimstone for all eternity.
It is immoral and despicable. It makes me want to shed tears for the dignity of her children whom this woman even in her death she had abused. Her children have suffered the most agonising torture by seeing their mother hopping into bed with anything in trouser. It is a shame and should never have happened.
I am sorry to the female folks who would be cross with me for conveying my feelings in this way, it is because I felt jealousy and outrage of betrayal and abuse by the innocence of her sons to indignities and shame, and I can never countenance and accept this from my mother or else I would publicly disown her.
• Posted by: Rebunk2002 • Report Comment
DIANA IN LOVE
14.01.08, 11:18pm
People in love do strange things, sometimes, people meet at the wrong time and fall in love, even though it will fail. It does not mean that love is dead and gone, sometimes the path crosses again and the love becomes what it was meant to be. I think that Dr Khan was truly in love with her but, he needed to be his own man before he became her man, now he is his own man but she is not here and he tortures himself for losing her, he is also a heart surgeon and he must wonder if he could have saved her in the aftermath of the accident. He will always be the man who could have been, if it's true that Diana was pregnant, the timescale puts Dr Khan in the frame, not Dodi Fayed. the pictures of her on holiday with Dodi, showing the so called bump were too soon to be Dodi's baby, maybe there was a baby, maybe it was Dr Kahn's, perhaps that's why Dodi Fayed was going to be the fall guy, falling in love with a woman who every man that ever looked in her eyes did. I looked in her eyes in 91, I understand the way she was able to convey everything with her eyes....
• Posted by: Mike4224 • Report Comment
I DON'T THINK THAT ANYONE AFTER READING ABOUT THE LOVE STORY...
14.01.08, 10:25pm
I don't think that anyone after reading about the love story between Diana and Hasnat Khan could ever doubt the love that she had for him or the possibility that she wanted to marry him. However this revelation does not mean that she did not come to love Dodi.
Lots of people when they have lost or moved on from a person they love or have loved do manage to fall in love again, it is nature.
I do not think that it was Diana's intention to fall in love with Dodi, in fact it probabaly never even entered her head, but as the Fayed holiday wore on she probably saw qualities in Dodi that she found very attractive. All the Hollywood stars and celebrities who knew Dodi have spoken with the highest regard about him saying that he was a good, kind, gentle, and sensitive man. These traits would have appealed to Diana as she possessed the very same qualities.
They also had a lot in common with the fact they was both bought up without their mothers.
Burrell in denying Diana's love for Dodi is his way of dancing to the tune of the royal establishment in order to make good with them. We all know he wants to make his mark in the world as a man of royal importance. I don't think that he realises that he has now not only betrayed Diana but her millions of fans the world over. He will have now lost their respect and support forever.
The only reason that Diana's love for Dodi is being undermined and denied is simply because his father Mr Al Fayed is the arch enemy of the establishment. Had anyone elese been his father then all would have been revealed. How despicable is that?
• Posted by: Nimue • Report Comment
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