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Thai king strips royal consort of her titles and military rank for ‘disloyalty’

Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi accused of ‘doing everything to rise to the level of the queen’

Samuel Osborne
Monday 21 October 2019 17:01 BST
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Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi is a former nurse and the king's bodyguard
Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi is a former nurse and the king's bodyguard (THAILAND'S ROYAL OFFICE/AFP)

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Thailand‘s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has stripped his royal consort of her titles and military ranks for “disloyalty”.

Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi was accused of seeking to undermine the position of the 67-year-old monarch’s official wife, an official palace announcement said.

The 34-year-old was “ungrateful” and had tried to “rise to the level of the queen, it added.

The announcement came less than three months after she was appointed the Royal Noble Consort by the king in July, the first such appointment in nearly a century.

She was appointed two months after the king married the deputy head of his personal bodyguard, Suthida Tidjai, 41, who he named his queen in May.

The palace statement said: “Royal Noble Consort Sineenat 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.

“She lacks the understanding of the good traditions of the royal court.She displays disobedience against the king and the queen.”

Previously a nurse and trained pilot, Sineenat also served in the king’s royal bodyguard unit, reaching the rank of Major General.

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