Would Princess Diana Have Married Dodi Fayed After Divorcing Prince Charles?

Princess Diana was never really able to fully explore what her life might have been after divorcing Prince Charles. Just over a year after the royal couple’s divorce, the Princess of Wales, along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, tragically died in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.

Many fans can’t help but wonder how Diana’s life must have unfolded had she not met her untimely demise. One particular area piquing their interest is whether or not she might have remarried, considering that she was already free from the legal ties that bound her to Charles at that point.

Not surprisingly, someone posted the question “What would have happened if Diana had married Dodi after divorcing Charles?” on Quora. What was surprising, however, is that most people don’t think that the late princess would have married her boyfriend at all.

Quora user Christopher McDonald, for instance, doesn’t believe that the two were in love at that point. “The reality is that Diana and Dodi were not in love,” McDonald wrote on Quora. “They may well have been eventually, but at the time of the crash they had only spent a short time together.”

He also pointed out that at that time, both of them just came out from long relationships that whatever they had was likely just a rebound. “For better or worse, the thing between them — however it might have turned out —was a rebound,” said McDonald. “Those close to Diana at the time report that she agreed to spend time with Dodi as a distraction.”

Another Quora user, Kimberly Klaus, believes that Diana was not thinking about marriage yet. “Diana had JUST finalized her divorce from Charles in 1996, a year before,” Klaus responded to the query. “She told a friend that she’d rather have a hole in the head rather than marry again.”

Klaus believes that Diana was likely still thinking about her most recent ex-boyfriend. “She had much stronger feelings for Dr. Hasnat Kahn, with whom she had a relationship for about 2 years (if I recall correctly) before they broke up,” she opined.

In fact, there were speculations that the reason why Diana dated Fayed was only to make Kahn jealous. As author Sally Bedell Smith puts it in her book “Diana In Search Of Herself,” Diana’s photos onboard Fayed’s family’s yacht were “meant for one reader, Hasnat Khan.”

Paul Burrell, Diana’s former butler, likewise believes that the late princess never meant to marry Fayed. “This was only a 30-day relationship and the princess had just finished a long relationship with someone she cared deeply about,” Burrell said. “She had met someone who was very caring and attentive and the Princess was enjoying it but marriage was never mentioned and certainly not engagement.”