Why are Malaysian princes in love with foreign brides?
- The crown prince of the state of Kelantan will marry a Swedish woman on Friday
- He’ll become just the latest in a long line of members of the Malaysian royal families to have married non-Malays
A Swedish woman Sophie Louise Johansson will be joining the Kelantan royal household when she ties the knot with the Malaysian state’s crown prince, Tengku Muhammad Faiz Petra, on Friday.
Tengku Faiz will be the latest royal to wed a non-Malay, after Tunku Tun Aminah Sultan Ibrahim, the only daughter of the Johor Sultan, married Dutch footballer Dennis Muhammad Abdullah in 2017.
The couple met in London when 33-year-old Johansson, who has a degree in English and sociology, was working as an au pair. Not much is known about her relationship with the 45-year-old prince, with the British press reporting they had met several years ago, and that the bride had a normal upbringing in her native Sweden.
The wedding takes place about three months after Muhammad Faiz’s brother, Sultan Muhammad V, abdicated as the Malaysian king. The 49-year-old’s abdication came not long after reports emerged that he had married a Russian former beauty queen, Oksana Voevodina, 25.
Under Malaysia’s system of constitutional monarchy system, each of the nine hereditary rulers is given a chance to be king for five years under a rotation system.