Diana wanted marriage 'like a rash on my face': friend

Diana, the Princess of Wales,said she needed another marriage "like a rash on my face," just days before the crash that killed her and boyfriend Dodi Fayed, a friend testified Monday.

The comments by Lady Annabel Goldsmith — a mother figure toDiana — at the British inquest into the deaths contradicts claims that Diana and Fayed wereon the cusp of announcingtheir engagement.

Goldsmith saidDiana uttered these wordsroughly oneweek before the Aug. 31, 1997, car crash in Paris that claimed the couple's lives. French and British police say the driver, Henri Paul, was well over the legal alcohol limit. Paul also died in the crash.

But Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, has claimed that the Queen's husband, Prince Philip, targeted the couple, in part, to prevent a Muslim from entering the royal circle.

On Friday, the inquest heard excerpts of so-called "Darling Dodi" letters written by the late Princess of Wales to her boyfriend. Lawyers for Fayed's father presented the letters as evidence of the seriousness of their relationship.

"This comes with all the love in the world and as always a million heartfelt thanks for bringing such joy into this chick's life," Diana wrote in one letter thanking Dodi Fayed for a six-day holiday on his yacht in the summer of 1997.

However, Goldsmith testified Monday that she believed Diana was in love with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, with whom she had an affair.

Goldsmith added she believed that Diana had been trying to make Khan jealous.

She alsotestified thatit was impossible for Diana to have been pregnant, but would notgo into details.