Friends of Diana said her two-year relationship with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan was very serious – marriage was even discussed and he was introduced to Princes William and Harry.

In the summer of 1997, however, the romance broke up. Butler Paul Burrell recalled a make-or-break meeting in Battersea in mid-July. He believed Mr Khan could not cope with the idea of going public as Diana's partner and was not prepared to put his career on hold.

But Mr Khan insisted it had been Diana who broke up with him after her first holiday with the Fayed family in late July when she met Dodi.

Her friend Rosa Monckton believed Dodi was a "distraction" and that she was still missing Mr Khan. Friends doubted the relationship with Dodi would lead to marriage.

Evidence at the inquest also pointed to an affectionate, if complex, relationship with the Duke of Edinburgh. In a series of letters in 1992 Diana and the Duke discussed the break-up of her marriage to the Prince of Wales.

Philip's tone was frank and at times critical and Diana was initially said to have been "hysterical" when she received his first letter in June.

But, according to Mrs Monckton, Diana came to appreciate the Duke's approach as an offer of help, responding "Dearest Pa" and discussing how "touched" she was.

Witnesses were unanimous that Princes William and Harry were the most important people in Diana's life. The jury heard that because they were to spend August 1997 with their father in Balmoral for the first time, Diana was eager to fill her diary with trips abroad. But friends said she spoke repeatedly of her eagerness to get home to see them.

Despite the pain of their divorce, the jury heard Prince Charles and Diana had a good relationship by the time of her death. Her flamboyant fashion executive friend, Roberto Devorik, told how she had always been quick to defend Charles against criticism from others and speculated that she still loved him even up to her death.

Diana's tempestuous relationship with her mother, Frances Shand Kydd, was in the public domain before the inquest. But there was still shock when Paul Burrell revealed she had called Diana a "whore" in a row over Mr Khan. The jury heard Diana and her mother stopped speaking in about July 1997.

It was also suggested that her brother-in-law, Lord Robert Fellowes, husband of her sister Lady Jane Fellowes, became hostile to her after her divorce, because of his position as the Queen's private secretary.

He told the jury he was "sad if she felt that" but insisted he was always "fond" of her and had continued to see her at family gatherings.