Diana’s lover told that phone had been hacked

Hasnat Khan, the former lover of Princess Diana, has revealed that police believe his phone may have been hacked in the months before her inquest.

The 53-year-old heart surgeon said he had been contacted by detectives after his name and mobile telephone number were found in paperwork uncovered during their investigations into phone-hacking.

Dr Khan said he felt “violated” to discover his voicemails may have been intercepted ahead of the belated inquest in 2008.

He said: “To know that someone has been listening to your private messages is awful.

“It is absolutely terrible. It feels as if you have been robbed.

“We live in the UK. We are supposed to have civil liberties. I feel really, really violated. I am very angry.”

Scotland Yard reopened an inquiry into phone hacking last year – codenamed Operation Weeting – amid a steady flow of new revelations about the practice of intercepting the voice messages of high-profile people.

Dr Khan said that any potential compensation he may receive would be donated to a heart unit he is setting up for children in Pakistan, which he and the Princess of Wales had dreamed of building.

He said: “Diana was one of those people who didn’t just talk about things. She would go out and get it done. I think this hospital would be ten years old by now if she was alive.”