Source:
https://scmp.com/magazines/style/people-events/article/2176084/has-former-miss-moscow-oksana-voevodina-married
Style/ Celebrities

Has former Miss Moscow Oksana Voevodina married Malaysia’s king Sultan Muhammad V?

Social media and newspaper reports – still not officially confirmed – suggest the king, 49, has married the former model, 25, in a concert hall in Moscow

Social media in Malaysia is abuzz with speculation that Oksana Voevodina (above), a former Miss Moscow and Russian model, has married the nation’s king, Sultan Muhammad V. Photo: Instagram @apegeo

Malaysian social media is still abuzz with speculation about the supposed marriage between the Asian nation’s king, Sultan Muhammad V and the Russian model Oksana Voevodina.

So far there has been no official confirmation from either the Istana Negara, the king’s Kuala Lumpur residence, or Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

One Malaysian newspaper report suggested that the king, 49, also known as the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, married the former Miss Moscow, 25, in a concert hall in Moscow on November 22.

Photographs, said to be of their wedding, have been widely circulated on social media.

A Malaysian tabloid reported that the wedding supposedly served halal food and was alcohol-free.

Voevodina is said to have met the king 18 months ago when she was modelling luxury watches and she subsequently converted to Islam.

She has adopted a Muslim name and will be known as Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko – the Gorbatenko her father’s surname, one report said.

Gorbatenko, who is a doctor, appeared in a photograph beside Voevodina taken at the Miss Moscow pageant.

Voevodina is believed to be a business graduate from the elite Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

She is said to have worked as a model in China and Thailand and won the Miss Moscow title in 2015.

In interviews after the competition, Voevodina said that her dream was to become a fashion designer.

A report by a Russian international television network said the king and Voevodina visited a fertility clinic in Germany days before their supposed wedding.

Voevodina’s press secretary confirmed that her Germany trip was for “treatment”, the report said.

It also said the king was anxious to start a family after his first marriage produced no children.

In 2004, the king – known as Tengku Muhammad Faris Petra ibni Tengku Ismail Petra before his ascension to the throne – married Kangsadal Pipitpakdee, a Thai descendant of Muslim royalty.

At the time the then-Crown Prince of Kelantan was aged 35, and his bride, 24.

The current status of this marriage is unclear, as Sultan Muhammad V ascended the throne in April 2017 without a queen consort.

Under Malaysia’s rotational monarchy system, a ceremonial king is elected for nine years from each of the nine Malay royal houses.

Sultan Muhammad V will be the king for five years before passing the role on to another Malay-state ruler, reports said.

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This article originally appeared on Business Insider.