Thai king strips consort of titles
Monarch’s royal companion branded as ‘disloyal,’ ‘ambitious,’ seeking to be equal to the queen
Bangkok—thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has stripped his newly named royal consort of her titles and military ranks for being “disloyal” and conducting a rivalry with Queen Suthida, the palace said late on Monday.
It made the extraordinary announcement just months after the king, who was officially crowned in May, made Sineenatra Wongvajirabhakdi a royal noble consort—the first such appointment in almost a century.
Sineenatra, 34, had breached a code of conduct for courtiers and was disloyal, a two-page palace statement said.
“Royal Noble Consort [Sineenatra] is ungrateful and behaves in ways unbecoming of her title. She is also not content with the title bestowed upon her, doing everything to rise to the level of the queen,” the statement said.
King Vajiralongkorn was crowned as constitutional monarch in May after first taking the throne following the 2016 death of his father, who reigned for 70 years.
Days before his coronation ceremonies, the king married the deputy head of his personal bodyguard, Suthida Tidjai, 41, giving her the title of Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana.
Before Sineenatra’s elevation in July, the title of royal noble consort had not been used since before the end of Thailand’s absolute monarchy in 1932.
The following month, the palace released a set of unusually candid pictures of Sineenatra, along with her official biography on its website.
Some of the pictures were in the usual royal tradition, with Sineenatra wearing Thai dress and sitting at the king’s feet. She was also pictured in the cockpit of a fighter jet and wearing a gray camouflagepattern crop top at the controls of a light aircraft.
The page appeared to have been taken down on Monday.
As recently as last week, Sineenatra was featured in official photographs released by the palace doing volunteer works in Bangkok.
Monday’s statement described vivid details of Sineenatra’s behavior, saying she had opposed Suthida’s appointment because she had hoped to be named queen herself.
It also called her “ambitious” in trying to obtain royal titles and “self-promoting” in exercising her royal activities.
“She lacks the understanding of the good traditions of the royal court. She displays disobedience against the king and the queen,” the statement said.
During his reign so far, King Vajiralongkorn, also known by the title King Rama X, has moved to consolidate the authority of the monarchy, including taking more direct control of the crown’s vast wealth and transferring two military units to his personal control.