BANGKOK, Thailand — Following a surprising return to Thailand after 27 years overseas, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn visited a creche for disadvantaged children in Bangkok on Tuesday.
Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse’s return was initially disclosed in a video online showing him being greeted by well-wishers in the arrival area of Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
His return occurred at a difficult moment for the Thai royal family, as the king’s eldest daughter had been in a coma since December.
The 42-year-old, who works at a law firm in New York, is King Vajiralongkorn’s second son with his wife, former actress Sujarinee Vivacharawongse. Sujarinee, accused of infidelity in public in 1996, was divorced by the then-crown prince. Sujarinee and her children then relocated to another country. The royal family adopted the youngest girl and named her Princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, but the four sons remain alienated and lacked formal royal titles.
The Palace still needs to respond to his visit.
According to the foundation’s Facebook post, Vacharaesorn went to the Foundation for Slum Child Care and donated money to support their work, adding he “greeted the children thoughtfully and took great interest in the foundation’s work of helping underprivileged children and families.”
Following a surprising return to Thailand after 27 years overseas, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn visited a creche for disadvantaged children in Bangkok on Tuesday.
Vacharaesorn was photographed embracing children and conversing with them.
Vacharaesorn was shown in recordings a day after his arrival visiting many religious sites in Bangkok, including the Temple of the Emerald Buddha on the grounds of the Grand Palace. He shared a photo of himself on an auto-rickshaw at night on Facebook with the comment “Bangkok Tuk-Tuk.”
King Vajiralongkorn, 71, has married four times and has seven children, but no formal heir has been named. Just days before his coronation in 2019, his fourth marriage to Queen Suthida was revealed. The king assumed the throne after his father’s death, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in 2016.
The Palace announced in December that Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, 44, had fainted due to heart arrhythmia caused by mycoplasma infection. According to the Palace’s most recent announcement on her status in January, she has been unconscious and on life support since.
SOURCE – (AP)
