Playboy Thai king anoints 34-year-old mistress as official concubine in front of wife he married three months ago
Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn broke nearly a century-old tradition and officially anointed his mistress as a royal consort, the first time in the country's modern history that a monarch has acknowledged having an extramarital affair.
In a televised ceremony on his 67th birthday, Vajiralongkorn, also known as 'Rama X', used ceremonial water to make his former bodyguard Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, 34, his Chao Khun Phra, or 'Royal Noble Consort,' according to the Times.
During the service, Sineenat lay on the floor to remain lower than the king's feet, following Thai royal tradition, which dictates that the ruling king regarded as god-like and must sit higher than everyone else.
Major-General Sineenat was also given four medals, including 'most noble order of the crown of Thailand' and 'most exalted order of the white elephant, special class,' and was praised for her time as a senior officer in the King's bodyguard team, the Ratchawallop Police Retainers.
Vajiralongkorn's fourth wife, Suthida Tidjai, former acting commander of Royal Thai Aide-de-Camp Department, and who he just married on May 1, was sitting stone-faced next to him throughout the ceremony.
The ceremony confirmed that this is the first time since 1932 that a Thai king has officially practiced polygamy and all but confirms rumors that the 67-year-old is a serial womanizer.
It should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed his life. Educated at the Millfield boarding school in Somerset, Vajiralongkorn has previously been involved in three failed marriages, reported the Daily Mail.
His first marriage, and which, to this day remains his only one with a royal, was with Princess Soamsawali Kitiyakara, who was also his first cousin from his mother's side. It lasted 15 years and bore him a daughter, Princess Bajrakitiyabha.
But just nine months after he had his daughter, he had a son with actress Yuvadhida Polpraserth. He would go on to marry her after his divorce from Soamsawali and had a total of five children with her before their relationship broke down beyond repair. She was then allegedly forced into exile to the US.
He married his third wife Srirasmi Suwadee, formerly a waitress. But there was controversy there as well. In 2007, footage published online showed the couple throwing a party for his pet poodle — who held a rank of Air Chief Marshal — where Srirasmi could be seen topless, dressed in nothing but a G-String, and getting on her knees and eating from the dog bowl.
That marriage ended after several members of her family were arrested as part of a police corruption probe and were charged with treason. She was then stripped of her royal titles.
His current wife, Suthida, was formerly his consort and Thai Airways flight attendant and had been appointed to the position of a deputy commander of his bodyguard unit before her marriage to him.
Vajiralongkorn is known to spend most of his time at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in the German resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, but curiously enough, only Sineenat stays with him. Suthida reportedly spends most of her time at Hotel Waldegg in Engelberg, Switzerland, without her husband.