Thai palace shares unusually candid images of king’s consort

Rare photographs of the king of Thailand’s newly-anointed consort have been released by the palace, reportedly causing its website to crash.

Sineenat Wongvajirapakdi, 34, is shown piloting a fighter jet, wearing combat fatigues, and firing a gun.

A consort is a title given by a monarch to his or her spouse or companion.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn, 67, bestowed the title on Sineenat in July, two months after his marriage to Queen Suthida, his fourth wife.

Sineenat, a major-general, was the first person to have been awarded the title of Royal Noble Consort in nearly a century.

In a statement, Thailand’s palace said the king had “ordered the creation of a royal biography” for Sineenat, who is a trained pilot, nurse and bodyguard.

Queen Suthida – a 41-year-old former flight attendant and deputy head of his bodyguard unit – is King Vajiralongkorn’s long-term partner and has been seen with him in public for many years.

He ascended to the throne after the death of his father in 2016.