Princess daughter of Thailand's playboy king 'is on life support'

Princess daughter of Thailand’s playboy king ‘is on life support after suffering a heart attack while jogging with her dogs’

• Thai princess Bajrakitiyabha, 44, reportedly collapsed in Khao Yai National Park
• She had reportedly been out running with dogs when she suffered heart attack  
• Princess was being lined up as the successor to father King Maha Vajiralongkorn

The princess daughter of Thailand’s playboy king is on life support after suffering a heart attack while jogging with her dogs, it has been claimed.

Princess Bajrakitiyabha, 44, was reportedly running with her dogs when she collapsed in the Khao Yai National Park in the Nakhon Ratchasima province, central Thailand, last night.

The princess, who was being lined up as the successor to her father King Maha Vajiralongkorn, is said to have been flown by helicopter from the Pack Chong Nana Hospital to the King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital in Bangkok in the early hours of this morning.

Princess Bajrakitiyabha, 44, (pictured in 2017) was reportedly running with her dogs when she collapsed in the Khao Yai National Park in the Nakhon Ratchasima province, central Thailand, last night

Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun (centre) is accompanied by Thai Queen Suthida (right) and his daughter Princess Bajrakitiyabha (left) in Bangkok in 2019

WIFE #1 

Princess Bajrakitiyabha born in December 1978 to the crown prince’s first wife Princess Soamsawali.

WIFE #2

Vajiralongkorn had five children with his second wife Sujarinee.

Sons: Juthavachara Vivacharawongse, born in August 1979; Vacharaesorn Mahidol, born in May 1981; Chakriwat Vivacharawongse, born in February 1983; and Vatcharawee Mahidol, born in June 1985. 

And a daughter: Princess Sirivannavari born in January 1987.

WIFE #3

Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti was born in 2005 to Vajiralongkorn’s third wife Srirasmi Suwadee.

He is the fifth son, youngest child and the heir to the throne. 

Medics are reportedly keeping her alive with a life-support machine and the Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has flown back early from an overseas trip. 

Thai royal expert Andrew MacGregor Marshall, an author and lecturer, said the prognosis was ‘very grim’ and that the monarchy – which punishes critics with prison – could be thrown into chaos.

MacGregor claimed the incident has ‘huge repercussions’ for the Thai monarchy as Princess Bajrakitiyabha was being lined up as the successor to controversial ‘crop top king’ Vajiralongkorn.

The king has sparked controversy after it emerged that he spent much of the coronavirus pandemic in Germany with a reputed entourage of ‘sex soldiers’ assembled as a military unit at a four-star hotel. 

The 70-year-old king has seven children by three previous marriages, all of which ended in divorce. Princess Bajrakitiyabha is the only one of King Vajiralongkorn born to his first wife Princess Soamsawali. 

King Vajiralongkorn has banished his first four male heirs from their homeland after he accused their mother Sujarinee Vivacharawongse of adultery in 1996. 

MacGregor said: ‘Princess Bajrakitiyabha was initially taken to Pak Chong Nana Hospital where CPR was attempted for hours without success. King Vajiralongkorn rushed to the hospital in a military helicopter.

‘Royal sources say the prognosis for the princess is very grim and it’s very unlikely she will ever recover. But she could potentially be kept artificially alive via ECMO for weeks or even months while the regime figures out what to do.

‘These events have huge repercussions for the Thai monarchy because it was assumed Bajrakitiyabha would be the next monarch or would be regent for her younger half-brother Dipangkorn who has autism and will not be able to reign alone.’

Residents living in the north of Bangkok reported hearing helicopters in the early hours of the morning. They are said to have been one helicopter carrying the stricken princess flanked by two military helicopters.

Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha (left) and Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana take part in a royal barge river procession in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2019

The Thai palace has not commented on the alleged incident and pliant local media outlets have censored reports on it.

The Thai monarchy is backed by the arch-royalist military, which has staged more than a dozen coups since the end of absolutism in 1932.

While the country has been roiled by decades of political turmoil, the constitution says the monarchy must be held ‘in a position of revered worship.’

Vajiralongkorn succeeded to the throne in 2016 after the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who had reigned since 1946.

The new king was not formally crowned until May 2019 when carried on a golden platform in a six-and-a-half-hour procession through Bangkok.

During the ceremony he was carried on a golden platform in a spectacular six-and-a-half-hour procession through Bangkok’s historic quarter.

Just days before the coronation, the King married his long-term consort and gave her the title Queen Suthida, in a surprise move.

Suthida Vajiralongkorn na Ayudhya, a former Thai Airways flight attendant, had to lie on the floor as she was given a gift by the king during the marriage ceremony.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Vajiralongkorn is said to have spent much of his time with an entourage of ‘sex soldiers’ at the Grand Hotel Sonnenbichl in the German resort town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Reports said the king had booked out the whole fourth floor which includes a ‘pleasure room’ and is decked out with ‘treasures and antiques’ from Thailand.

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn (right) and Queen Suthida during their wedding ceremony in Bangkok. According to tradition, the King has a semi-divine status and must be seated higher than those around him

His ‘sex soldiers’ are said to be assembled as a military unit called the SAS like Britain’s special forces – with the same motto, ‘who dares wins’.

One hotel worker said staff are forbidden from the fourth floor where the king and his entourage have set up camp.

However, the king’s diplomatic immunity means that there is little German authorities can do about it.

Queen Suthida reportedly spends most of her time at Hotel Waldegg in Engelberg, Switzerland, without her husband.

The king is protected from criticism in Thailand by one of the world’s toughest defamation laws, with prison sentences up to 15 years.

Who is the playboy prince that became king? Thai monarch has spent most of his life overseas and been married three times before

King Maha was born on July 24, 1952 in Bangkok’s Royal Dusit Palace, the 64-year-old is the only son and male heir of King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit.

As an adolescent he studied at two public schools in Britain, including King’s Mead School, Seaford, Sussex, and then at Millfield School, Somerset. After, he embarked on a military career, training in Australia. 

In 1976, he graduated as a newly commissioned lieutenant with a liberal arts bachelors degree from the University of New South Wales. 

After graduating he started a career in the military training with US, British and Australian armed forces. He also qualified as a a fixed wing helicopter pilot in the late 1970s in the Royal Thai Army.

His military career was interrupted in 1978 so he could be ordained for a season as a Buddhist monk, as is customary for all Thai Buddhist men.

He married his first wife in 1977, a cousin, Princess Soamsavali Kitiyakara, with whom he has a daughter, Princess Bajrakitiyabha in 1978. They divorced in 1993.

Nine months after his daughter was born, the prince had a son with actress Yuvadhida Polpraserth, with whom he went on to have a total of five children and a tumultuous relationship.

Three years later his relationship broke down with Ms Polpraserth as she fled to the UK in 1996, after a spectacular bust up.

In 2001 he wed his third wife Srirasmi Suwadee, describing her as a ‘modest and patient’ woman who ‘never says bad things towards anyone’ and like his previous relationships there were to be a number of controversies in their time together. 

In 2007, footage published online showed the couple throwing a party for his pet poodle – who held the rank of Air Chief Marshall – at the Royal Palace in Bangkok. Princess Srirasmi, a former waitress, who sang happy birthday to the dog topless, also got on her knees and ate from a dog bowl in the same video.

In late 2014, Srirasmi suffered a very public fall from grace when several members of her family were arrested as part of a police corruption probe and charged with lese majeste (treason).

Vajiralongkorn later divorced her and she lost her royal titles . The crown prince has spent much of his time away from the public eye, but in recent years he has stepped in at some official ceremonies as his father’s health declined.

Despite holding a number of military titles, including Knight of the Ancient and Auspicious Order of the Nine Gems, the prince admitted to an interviewer he was unable to tie his own shoe laces aged 12 because courtiers had always done it for him.

The crown prince has spent much of his time away from the public eye, living overseas in Germany, but in recent years he has stepped in at some official ceremonies as his father’s health declined.

In August 2015 he led key figures of the current junta and thousands of others in a mass bike ride through Bangkok, a rare high-profile appearance.

He was drafted in as King in October 2016, 50 days after the death of his father, the highly revered Bhumibol Adulyadej. He had to fly back from Germany after learning of his father’s deteriorating health in the days before.

Thai junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha announced that the Crown Prince would ascend the throne with tthe statement: ‘The government will inform the National Legislative Assembly that His Majesty the King appointed his heir on Dec. 28, 1972.’

However, in a shock move he requested to delay his coronation and ascension to the throne for a year to mourn the passing of his father. 

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