The eccentric king of Thailand is facing renewed controversy after reportedly crowning his royal consort as a second queen.
According to The Daily Mail, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 68, controversially crowned Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi on Tuesday, her 36th birthday, and renewed critiques against the monarchy.
The move by Thailand’s king to royally crown his consort has been met by renewed controversy — and even allegations of violence.
According to The Daily Beast, the king also allegedly broke his sister’s ankles amid an argument where she was knocked to the ground.
The king’s sister had confronted him over his plans to make his official consort a second queen, alongside his present wife, Queen Suthida.
“The king only married his current and fourth wife, Suthida, in May 2019, just days before his coronation. He divorced his third wife in 2014. The relationship was made famous by a leaked video showing her feeding birthday cake to his poodle, Fufu, while she wore only a G-string and courtiers crawled on the floor before her and the king,” the Beast reported.
The proposed scheme apparently went down badly with his sister, Princess Sirindhorn, who went to see her brother to try to change his mind about two weeks ago.
The renewed controversy for Thailand’s king comes at a poor time for the country’s royal family, as Thailand is currently being ravaged by a deep recession brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic has led to a collapse in the country’s tourism industry, a key part of its economy. The economic downturn has also increased scrutiny on the exploits of the ultra-wealthy Thai royals.
According to The Wall Street Journal, at least 54 people have been charged under a law that prohibits any perceived insult to the Thai monarchy since last November.
Many of those charged have questioned the royalty’s role in the country’s ongoing tumult, which has seen frequent coups and political strife in the past decades.
They have become more outspoken about the wealth, lifestyle and political clout of the king, who took the throne after his widely revered father died in 2016. Many have also questioned the legitimacy of the law that shields the monarchy from criticism.
The renewed controversy involving the Thailand king and his royal consort comes only a few months after reports of a revenge porn attack against the consort.
The royal consort allegedly had over 1,000 explicit images of her leaked by “enemies” of the royal family.
“Most of the images are photographs she took of herself, and dozens of them are very explicit,” one recipient of the images said previously.
A letter that was sent to a critic of the Thai royals claimed that the racy images had been obtained by “pro-democracy Thai hackers.”
The Daily Beast reports that the German government is concerned that the Thai king is illegally governing his nation while living it up in a luxury hotel in the Bavarian Alps while he rides out the COVID-19 pandemic in style. Before the revenge porn campaign shook the ground beneath her feet, his royal mistress was enjoying herself by his side along with 20 concubines.
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