LONDON: The late Princess Diana considered converting to Islam, according to a royal photographer whom she asked for advice about the religion and interfaith marriage.
The princess reportedly approached Anwar Hussein, 83, the royal family’s longest-serving snapper, during a flight.
Hussein told People magazine: “All the lights were dimmed and she came and whispered: ‘Can I have a chat?’
“She knew that I was married to an English girl, Caroline. She wanted to know about Islam. She was asking about being married when one person is Muslim and another is Protestant.”
He added: “She was interested because of what she was going through with (then boyfriend) Dr. Hasnat Khan. She didn’t mention him, but she assumed I knew it. I think she was wondering how the family would react to him and things like that.”
Diana is said to have been besotted with Khan — a heart surgeon and Muslim — in the 1990s and according to the Daily Mail considered converting to Islam so the pair could marry.
A close friend said she was so “madly in love” that she even thought about moving to Pakistan to be with Khan but abandoned the idea when he decided their relationship was doomed to fail.
His father, Abdul Rasheed Khan, said his son told the family: “If I married her, our marriage would not last for more than a year. We are culturally so different from each other.
“She is from Venus and I am from Mars. If it ever happened, it would be like a marriage from two different planets.”
Princess Diana died in 1997 in a car crash alongside film producer Dodi Al Fayed.