Is Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn a modern-day Henry VIII?

Oct 23 , 2019

Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn poses with former royal noble consort Sineenat Bilaskalayani, also known as Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, who was dramatically stripped of all her royal titles by the palace on October 21 – a shock move less than three months after she was bestowed with a position that had not been used for nearly a century. Photo: AFP/Thailand’s Royal Office

Just three months after naming her the first Noble Royal Consort in almost 100 years, King Maha Vajiralongkorn stripped former nurse Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi of her palace title, accusing the 34-year-old of disloyalty

When Thailand’s newly crowned King Maha Vajiralongkorn named one of his bodyguards as Noble Royal Consort on his birthday in July, no one had held the title for nearly a century, dating back to the days of absolute monarchy.

Later, the palace released a series of photos of 34-year-old consort Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, a former nurse, variously showing her in the cockpit of a fighter jet, wearing a crop top and dressed in combat fatigues with the king and the royal poodle.

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn and general Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi – who has been stripped of all royal titles amid accusations of disloyalty. Photo: Reuters

Such laudatory images were previously reserved for the king’s closest relatives – and they resembled the military-style photos of the king’s wife, Queen Suthida Bajrasudhabimalalakshana, on her birthday in June.

But Sineenat’s swift rise to the public eye was followed by a sudden and brutal fall, enacted on Monday (October 21).

General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, the now-ousted royal consort of Thailand's King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Photo: Reuters

King Vajiralongkorn, 67, stripped her of her titles in an order calling her “disloyal”, “ungrateful” and “ambitious”.

All images of her disappeared from the palace website. An unverified Instagram account in her name was shut down overnight.