Sultan divorces young wife for 'special reasons'
June 17, 2010 - 1:04PM
Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah with first wife Queen Saleha and second wife Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, right. Photo: Reuters
The sultan of the small oil-rich kingdom of Brunei has divorced his third wife and stripped her of all royal titles after five years of marriage.
Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, 63, divorced Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, 30, a former Malaysian television journalist, whom he married in 2005, according to state television.
"The Sultan has divorced his wife Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim and all the royal titles that have been awarded to the Sultan's former wife have been withdrawn," Grand chamberlain Haji Alauddin Haji Abu Bakar announced on Radio Television Brunei.
He said the divorce was granted based on "special reasons" but no other details were given.
Rumours of the royal break-up had been circulating in the capital in recent weeks.
During their marriage, Azrinaz bore two children, adding to the Sultan's 10 heirs from earlier marriages.
The pair married in a private ceremony in Kuala Lumpur in 2005.
The ruler remains married to his first wife Anak Hajah Saleha and their son Prince Al Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah, is the present heir to the throne.
He married his second wife, former stewardess Mariam Abdul Aziz in October 1981 but divorced her in 2003.
Hassanal Bolkiah came to the throne as the kingdom's 29th sultan in 1967 upon the abdication of his father.
He has a reported fortune of $US20 billion ($A23.17 billion) built on Brunei's oil and gas reserves.
