{"id":212377,"date":"2019-05-02T03:08:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T07:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=212377"},"modified":"2019-05-02T03:08:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-02T07:08:26","slug":"thai-king-appoints-consort-as-queen-ahead-of-coronation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/05\/02\/thai-king-appoints-consort-as-queen-ahead-of-coronation\/","title":{"rendered":"Thai king appoints consort as queen ahead of coronation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_212379\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-212379\" style=\"width: 424px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/424px-King_Rama_X_official_crop.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-212379\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/424px-King_Rama_X_official_crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"424\" height=\"480\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/424px-King_Rama_X_official_crop.png 424w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/424px-King_Rama_X_official_crop-265x300.png 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 424px) 100vw, 424px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-212379\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Thailand&#8217;s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has appointed his consort as the country&#8217;s queen ahead of his official coronation on Saturday. (<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=70926353\">File Photo By The Public Relations Department\/Wikimedia commons, CC BY 3.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>BANGKOK \u2014 Thailand&#8217;s King Maha\u00a0Vajiralongkorn\u00a0has appointed his consort as the country&#8217;s queen ahead of his official coronation on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>An announcement Wednesday in the Royal Gazette said Suthida\u00a0Vajiralongkorn\u00a0Na Ayudhya is legally married to the 66-year-old king , and is now Queen Suthida.<\/p>\n<p>Although she has been in the public eye for about three years, there has been little official information released about her and the news was a surprise to many Thais. She is reported to be 40 years old and to have previously worked as a flight attendant for Thai Airways International. The two reportedly met on a flight.<\/p>\n<p>Suthida joined the palace guard in 2013 and became commander of the king&#8217;s security unit, currently holding a general&#8217;s rank. The new queen also has several top royal decorations.<\/p>\n<p>Vajiralongkorn\u00a0has had three previous marriages and divorced his previous wife, with whom he has a son, in 2014. He became king after the death in October 2016 of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.<\/p>\n<p>Thai television, which broadcast the royal order Wednesday evening, showed a video of Suthida prostrating herself before the king. According to the announcer, she presented the king with a tray of flowers and joss sticks, and in return was bestowed traditional gifts associated with royal power.<\/p>\n<p>TV showed the king in a white uniform and his bride in a pink silk traditional dress formally registering their marriage on Wednesday in his palace residence in Bangkok. The couple was seen signing a marriage certificate book, which was also signed by the king&#8217;s sister, Princess Sirindhorn, and Privy Council head Prem Tinsulanonda as witnesses. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and other senior officials were also in attendance.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BANGKOK \u2014 Thailand&#8217;s King Maha\u00a0Vajiralongkorn\u00a0has appointed his consort as the country&#8217;s queen ahead of his official coronation on Saturday. An &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":212379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":212380,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212377\/revisions\/212380"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}