A royal photographer surprisingly revealed that the late Princess Diana considered converting to Islam by asking for advice on religion and interfaith marriage while they were in flight during a tour in the mid-nineties.
During the flight, the princess reportedly asked questions to Anwar Hussein, 83, the Royal Family’s longest-serving photojournalist, who has documented Diana’s journey from 1980 until her tragic death in 1997.
At that time, Diana, who was a Christian, was dating a heart surgeon and Muslim Dr Hasnat Khan. According to the Daily Mail, the princess is considering converting to Islam so the pair could marry.
In an interview with People Magazine, Hussein recalled that the princess approached him and asked to talk with him.
Hussein explained that at that time Lady Diana knew that he was married to an English girl, Caroline. And she wanted to know about Islam and asked about getting married when one person was Muslim and another is Protestant.
He added that without mentioning her relationship with her then-boyfriend, Dr Hasnat, she assumed Hussein had known about it. He thinks then she was wondering how the family would react to him and things like that.
In 2013, Diana’s close friend, Jemima Khan, who was with her on her 1996 trip to Pakistan, said that the princess was deeply in love with Hasnat. She met his family during the visit and at one point she even considered moving to Pakistan to be with him.
Unfortunately, Diana had to abandon the idea after Khan decided their relationship would not work out in the long run. His father, Abdul Rasheed Khan, said his son told the family that if he married him, the marriage would not last long because he was thinking that they are culturally very different from each other.
Princess Diana died in 1997 in a car accident alongside a film producer whom she dated for several months, Dodi Al Fayed, who is also a Muslim.
