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Happy Birthday to King Maha Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, who turns 67 today! The only son of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit of Thailand, he is the brother of three sisters, including Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn. Educated at the Chitralada School in Dusit Palace and King’s Mead and Millfield School in the United Kingdom, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn attended a military training course at The King’s School in Sydney, before enrolling at the Royal Military College, Duntroon in Canberra. He also studied at the University of New South Wales and at the Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University. Serving for much of his life in the Thai Royal Army, in 1976 he was ordained as a Monk, and has focused his interests towards hospitals, health care, agricultural development, education and sport. In 1977, he married his first cousin, Princess Soamsawali Kitiyakara, and had a daughter Princess Bajrakitiyabha, remaining married to her while he had five children with actress Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, who he married in 1994 after his divorce, when the five children, four sons and one daughter, were given royal titles, until they fled to the UK in 1996, when the Crown Prince divorced his wife, abducted Princess Sirivannavari, and stripped his sons of their royal titles. In 2001, he remarried to Srirasmi Suwadee, having one son, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, before their divorce in 2014. In 2019, he married for the 4th time, to the the acting commander of Royal Thai Aide-de-Camp Department, Suthida Tidjai. He succeeded to the Throne as King Rama X after the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in 2016, being officially crowned in a series of lavish ceremonies in May. We wish HM a very Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns!

Click HERE to learn about the Thai Royal Orders, and HERE to take a look at my recent trip to Thailand!