Thailand King Maha Vajiralongkorn has married a former flight attendant turned royal guard in a surprise ceremony and designated her Queen Suthida, just days before his own coronation.
The king’s new bride was formerly the deputy head of hispersonal security detail, the Guardian reported.
The surprise announcement came just ahead ofVajiralongkorn’s coronation was announced in the royal gazette. The report alsocarried footage from Wednesday’s wedding ceremony.
The news of the royal wedding was later also shown in theroyal news segment aired on all Thai television channels late Wednesday.
Vajiralongkorn, 66, also known by the title King Rama X,became constitutional monarch after the death of his revered father, KingBhumibol Adulyadej, in October 2016. Bhumibol had ruled for 70 years.
Vajiralongkorn is scheduled to be officially crowned inelaborate Buddhist and Brahmin ceremonies on Saturday, followed by a processionthrough the capital.
In 2014, Vajiralongkorn appointed Suthida Tidjai, a formerflight attendant for Thai Airways, as a deputy commander of his bodyguard unit.
Some royal observers and foreign media had linked Suthidaromantically with the king, but the palace had previously never acknowledgedany relationship, the Guardian report said.
The king made Suthida a full general in the army in December2016 and she has also been made a ‘thanpuying’, a royal title meaning lady.
Vajiralongkorn has previously been married and divorcedthree times and has seven children.
While the king took the throne after the death of hisfather, his formal coronation follows a mourning period for King Bhumibol,whose royal cremation was held a year after his death.
Among the dignitaries at the wedding were Prayuth Chan-ocha,the leader of the military junta that has run Thailand since a 2014 army coup,as well as other members of the royal family and palace advisers, the weddingfootage showed.