Princess Diana's 'Mr Wonderful' heart surgeon lover Hasnat Khan is seen for the first time since Earl Spencer's book said she dreamed of a new life with him in South Africa

The heart surgeon Princess Diana fell passionately in love with has been pictured for the first time since her brother Earl Spencer disclosed secrets of her romance in his bombshell memoir.

Earl Spencer told in his book how his sister plotted to move to South Africa with her lover Dr Hasnat Khan in a bid to flee from her 'petulant' ex-husband King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales.

The Earl revealed how she went as far as to speak to medical pioneer Dr Christiaan Barnard on a visit to the country shortly before her death, as she hoped he could get a job for Dr Khan at his hospital in Cape Town.

Dr Khan who was dubbed 'Mr Wonderful' by Diana has largely maintained a discreet silence about his two-year relationship with her while he was working at the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea, west London.

The Daily Mail revealed in April this year how the British-Pakistani cardiothoracic surgeon was moving back to the country of his birth to become Dean of the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology in the city of Lahore.

Earl Spencer's revelation on August 18 this year that he was publishing his memoir about Diana called Swan Song: Diana My Sister did not prevent Dr Khan from making a prominent public appearance in Pakistan just three days later.

Dr Hasnat Khan is seen here for the first time since Earl Spencer's controversial book in which he said that Princess Diana wanted to make a new life with the heart surgeon in South Africa 

Princess Diana fell passionately in love with heart surgeon Dr Khan and described him as her 'Mr Wonderful'. Earl Spencer's bombshell memoir disclosed secrets from their relationship

He was seen accompanying Maryam Nawaz, the chief minister of Punjab, as she opened Pakistan's first heart transplant centre named after her at the prestigious 250-bed clinic where he works.

Wearing a grey suit, he was pictured and filmed as he proudly showed the minister around the state-of-the-art facility at the institute's official inauguration ceremony. His role at the centre is thought to largely involve the teaching of staff.

Earl Spencer told in his book how life in the UK had become 'intolerable' for Diana by the time she flew to visit him in Cape Town where he was living in March 1997 – just five months before she died aged 36 in a road crash in Paris.

He wrote: 'She had come to see for herself if this sublimely beautiful tip of Africa … could provide a haven for her and her heart surgeon lover… Might they, she dared hope, move there together, and carve out a life?'

The now-62-year-old Earl Spencer said Diana had been 'looking for a rural getaway' where she could live in 'perfect peace' with Khan.

Earl Spencer told how 'in the latest of these whimsical scenarios, she hoped her new love could work at Groote Schuur Hospital, a few miles away from my Cape Town home. This was where Christiaan Barnard had performed the first successful human heart transplant thirty years earlier.

'Diana dreamed that she and her man could live happily – normally – nearby. The other side of the world seemed to offer the possibility of asylum.'

After being approached, Dr Barnard promised that he was 'busy investigating possible medical opportunities for her man. He was confident something suitable would turn up.'

But Diana's dream came to nothing and her relationship with Dr Khan ended just months later before she reputedly embarked on her doomed romance with Dodi Fayed in what many believe was a reckless act to make the surgeon jealous.

Tragically Dodi and the Princess died together when their Mercedes crashed in the Alma tunnel in Paris on August 31, 1997.

Diana first struck up a friendship with Dr Khan, described by friends as a shy and intensely private man, after meeting him while she was visiting a friend who was being treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital.

He described in a rare interview in the Daily Mail a few years ago how they had become close when he was single.

Dr Khan, who was two years older than Diana, said: 'One day I came out of the hospital and she was going in and she shouted at me, "Oi, where are you going?"

'I said I was going to my uncle's house in Stratford-upon-Avon to collect some books and I blurted out, "Do you want to come?" She said yes, and that was it really.

'We drove up there, drove back and found this wonderful connection. She was very ordinary in many ways, a normal person with great warmth.'

The couple enjoyed unlikely dates at the Breakspear Arms, a pub not far from the Harefield Hospital in Middlesex where he had also been working.

Diana, who was separated from Prince Charles at the time, but still married, was also said to have smuggled the doctor into her Kensington Palace residence, hidden in the boot of her car.

She had met Dr Khan's family on a visit to Pakistan in 1996 when she wore a traditional shalwar kameez – consisting of trousers paired with a flowing dress.

Diana first met Dr Khan while she was visiting a friend who was being treated at the Royal Brompton Hospital

Dr Khan now lives and works in Pakistan as the dean of the Jinnah Institute of Cardiology in the city of Lahore. He was seen in a recently released video escorting the chief minister of Punjab, Maryam Nawaz, around the institute

While there, Diana visited a cancer hospital run by former test cricketer Imran Khan, a distant cousin of Dr Khan, and tried to win over the rest of his family, including his grandmother, with whom she'd had a longstanding correspondence.

The couple were said to have discussed marriage and having children together, the possibility of moving to Pakistan, and Diana even introduced him to her sons William and Harry.

She is also said to have been so smitten at one point that she considered converting to Islam so the pair could marry.

But while they continued to see each other for two years, Dr Khan could finally not bear the thought of living his life in the glare of publicity as partner to the world's most famous woman.

The Princess's closest friends previously spoke of her distress when he ended their relationship.

Describing how their romance ended, Dr Khan once said: 'I knew I would not be able to live a normal life and if we ever had children together, I would not be able to take them anywhere or do normal things with them.'

But Diana remained in contact with his family, even after their break-up.

Dr Khan once said: 'There are a hundred could-have-beens. She could be living very happily and married and having more kids, with me or with someone else. It could have led in that direction. I try not to think about these things. I can't change anything now.'

The surgeon who attended Diana's funeral ceremony at Westminster Abbey, once said of her legacy: 'She did a lot of work. She got to where she was on what she was.

'She didn't just shake hands and wave at people. She actually did things. Now she has gone, there is a huge vacuum – she has left a gap.'

While never speaking of their relationship while the Princess was alive, Dr Khan was furious when a big budget movie which claimed to reveal the true story of their romance and have his approval was released in 2013.

Dr Khan – who also featured in the hit Netflix series The Crown – described the movie called Diana, which starred Naomi Watts and Naveen Andrews as 'completely wrong'.

In 2017, the Daily Mail revealed he had found love again after getting engaged to Somi Sohail. The couple were photographed together at a charity ball in London's Mayfair

After Diana's death, he continued to devote his life to his work, living quietly for many years in east London.

A decade after Diana's death, Dr Khan married Hadia Sher Ali, a Pakistani descendant from Afghan royalty, who was 29 at the time. However, their arranged marriage ended after just 18 months.

Dr Khan reportedly married his second wife Somi Sohail in 2017 and continued to work as a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals in Essex, while living with her and their young daughter.

He is still listed as a surgeon on the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust website and it is believed he will continue to return to the UK to carry out consultancy here while setting up a new base in Pakistan.