- Title: Thais "surprised" by consort pictures released by the palace
- Date: 27th August 2019
- Summary: VARIOUS OF UNNAMED INTERVIEWEE LOOKING AT PICTURES OF ROYAL NOBLE CONSORT, SINEENAT WONGVAJIRAPAKDI ON THE PHONE
- Embargoed: 10th September 2019 12:05
- Keywords: Thailand Bangkok King King Maha Vajiralongkorn Royal Nobel Consort Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi
- Location: BANGKOK, THAILAND / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- City: BANGKOK, THAILAND / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- Country: Thailand
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Royals
- Reuters ID: LVA004ATZRWHZ
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Bangkok residents said they were "surprised" by the unusually candid pictures and an official biography of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's consort, 34-year-old Major-General Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, released by Thailand's palace on Monday (August 26).
One of the pictures showed Sineenat wearing a Thai dress and sitting at the king's feet, while another showed her in the cockpit of a fighter jet and wearing a grey camouflage pattern crop-top at the controls of a light aircraft.
One Thai citizen, who did not want to be named, said it was inappropriate for the government to release such photos since it might give a bad image of the monarchy.
The king named Sineenat, a former nurse and his bodyguard, as Royal Noble Consort on his birthday last month. It was the first such appointment in almost a century, long before the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.
Sineenat's appointment as consort came after the king married a former flight attendant and deputy head of his personal guard force, Suthida Tidjai, 41, and made her queen just days before his coronation in May.
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