Princess Diana Film ‘Completely Wrong?’
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Ecosse Films(LONDON) — Nearly 16 years after Princess Diana’s death in a Paris car crash, her life is about to be immortalized on the big screen by Naomi Watts in a new biopic titled, Diana.
One of the main characters in both the movie and Diana’s real life, however, says the movie has it all wrong.
“It is based on gossip and Diana’s friends’ talking about a relationship that they didn’t know much about, and some of my relatives who didn’t know much about it, either,” Diana’s former lover Hasnat Khan told the U.K.’s Mail on Sunday. “It is all based on hypotheses and gossip.”
Khan, 54, is the Pakistani heart surgeon whom Diana dated for two years, reportedly calling him “Mr. Wonderful.” Their relationship ended in 1997 and Diana went on to date Dodi Al Fayed, with whom she died while being driven in a car in Paris in August of that same year.
According to Vanity Fair’s September cover story on the late princess, Diana wanted to marry Khan, portrayed in the film by Naveen Andrews of Lost, and secretly met his family in Pakistan to discuss the possibilities.
Khan, who has remained silent on his relationship with Princess Diana until now, told the Mail he has not seen the film but saw an online, still photo of the actors who are portraying him and Diana.
“You could tell from that picture that it is all just presumed about how we would behave with each other, and they have got it completely wrong,” Khan told the paper.
“There wasn’t any hierarchy in our relationship. She wasn’t a princess and I wasn’t a doctor,” he said. “We were friends, and normal people stand like friends with each other. That one still picture told me a lot about how they will portray things in the film and I can see [it] is wrong.”
The film, set to be released next month in the United Kingdom and in November in the United States, is based on the 2001 book, Diana: Her Last Love, by author Kate Snell.
Khan told the Mail he was approached by both Snell and filmmakers seeking his cooperation but declined.
“I have never read the book to this day,” Khan said. “I really don’t know how she got her information because even my very close friends didn’t know what was going on between me and the princess.”
Khan also told the paper he tries not to think about the “hundred could-have-beens” surrounding his relationship with the Princess of Wales.
“She [Diana] 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,” Khan said.
The studio behind Diana, eOne, told ABC News it, “does not have an official statement at this time,” in regards to Khan’s comments.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio