New book details Diana's last year

The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- The author of a new book about Princess Diana says she may have suffered from borderline personality disorder, which can cause sufferers to be self-destructive, impulsive, volatile and easily depressed.

The book also talks about a relationship Diana allegedly had with Dr. Hasnat Khan, a Pakistani heart surgeon whom she met before Dodi Al Fayed.

In "Diana in Search of Herself," due out later this month from Times Books, author Sally Bedell Smith wrote that the princess was much more troubled than the public realized, according to excerpts published in People magazine.

Nowhere in the excerpts did Smith give clinical evidence of Diana being officially diagnosed with a personality disorder.

Smith wrote that Diana's troubles showed up in her personal relationships, in which the princess combined love with possessiveness.

A friend told Smith that Diana would have converted to Islam for Khan, who she considered "a vital anchor in her life."

Smith interviewed Simone Simmons, Diana's alternative psychotherapist who said "Diana was so impatient to have Hasnat's undivided attention that if he used the Kensington Palace telephones to speak to his family or friends in Pakistan for more than 10 minutes, Diana would turn her music up or dance before him to distract his attention."

The relationship faltered after Diana flew to Pakistan in May 1997 to meet Khan's family without telling him. Khan broke off the relationship two months later after a newspaper said the couple had become "unofficially engaged," Smith wrote.

It was partly to provoke Khan that Diana was so public about her relationship with Al Fayed, who died with her on Aug. 31, 1997, in a car crash in Paris, Smith wrote.

Smith has written biographies of former U.S. ambassador to France Pamela Harriman and CBS founder William Paley.

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