A confidante of the Russian beauty queen who wed the abdicated King of Malaysia has expressed ‘concern’ for her but denied the pair are divorcing just two months after they married.
Reports this week suggested 25-year-old Oksana Voevodina’s relationship with Sultan Muhammad V, 49, of Kelantan was on the rocks.
This followed a shock announcement earlier this month that the king was quitting his throne in the wake of his wedding to the glamorous Russian, and lurid sex claims about her past life as a reality TV show star in her homeland.
Now the beauty queen’s ‘former friends’ are being blamed for spreading untruths that her marriage had failed.
The controversial two month marriage between the former Malaysian king Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan and Russian beauty queen Oksana Voevodina (left and right with her husband) is not in trouble, according to a confidante
Tatiana Andreyeva-Falk (left) a Miss Moscow director with Oksana Voevodina, she has denied claims that her friend is experiencing marital problems
Early in the New Year, Sultan Muhammad V (pictured) abdicated, a shock move that was linked by some reports to his controversial marriage
Close confidante Tatiana Andreyeva-Falk said she had spoken to the royal bride over the divorce reports and claimed: ‘It is unpleasant for her to listen to all this nonsense….’
She told Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper in Moscow: ‘I love her as if she were my daughter. I am worried and concerned.’
Andreyeva-Falk, director of the Miss Moscow pageant which Voevodina won in 2015, said: ‘I know that in reality they are doing well.
Ms Andreyeva-Falk said she is ‘concerned’ about the beauty queen who she loves like a daughter
‘Yes, it is true – all is okay.
‘Where did those rumours about the divorce come from?
‘Many think that there is no smoke without fire… I don’t know.
‘Maybe from her friends? Who knows?
‘This or that may be invented. I am surprised myself. But all is okay.’
A source close to Voevodina was quoted by Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper as saying the couple wanted to refute the divorce claims which surfaced widely in the Moscow media this week.
At the same time there were reports that the Russian, who has also worked as a model in China and Thailand, was expecting their first child.
Even though he was the Malaysian head of state they originally intended that their nuptials in an elite Moscow concert hall in November would go unnoticed ‘and no-one would know about it’, the friend claimed.
Accounts in several Russian newspapers and online news outlets claimed the royal wedding was in difficulty, even suggesting paperwork for divorce was already being prepared
Royal wedding: Oksana Voevodina, 25, married Malaysia’s Muhammad V of Kelantan, 49, in a lavish royal wedding ceremony in the Russian capital in November
The Russian beauty lies provocatively on her back in a sheer black ensemble with a jacket
‘All the hype around her name is unpleasant to her,’ said the unnamed source.
‘The couple had to hire lawyers who could control the situation in Russia.
‘This is their private life, which is not to be disclosed.
‘No single one of her friends knows what is happening inside their family.
‘We do not know who launched the “news” about the divorce, perhaps some of her ex-friends.’
Izvestia newspaper had headlined its report: ‘King of Malaysia and Miss Moscow 2015 decided to divorce.’
It was one of many such stories in the Russian media.
Voevodina caused a stir with her risqué pictures and claims that she had had sex with another contestant in a swimming pool during a Russian TV reality show filmed in Mexico in which she starred under a fake name.
It comes as British-educated Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, 59, (pictured) was named Malaysia’s new king today, replacing Sultan Muhammad V who abdicated unexpectedly after just two years on the throne
The pair wed at an alcohol-free ceremony at an elite concert hall in the upscale Moscow suburb of Barvikha on November 22 last year. Earlier she had converted to Islam
The past of the royal bride came to light following her surprise royal nuptials.
She held a champagne glass as she allegedly ‘surprised the participants of a reality show by having sex on her first date’, according to Moscow reports.
Pictures from the show were widely publicised amid claims the beauty queen’s past had met with disapproval in conservative Malaysia.
This week British-educated Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah, 59, of central Pahang state was chosen as the new Malaysian monarch, replacing Voevodina’s husband.
Sultan Muhammad V, who attended Oakham School in Rutland, England, had abdicated after just two years, an unprecedented move.
No reason was given but he quit soon after his controversial marriage.
Sultan Abdullah, a key figure in several international sports bodies, will be sworn in on January 31 for a five-year term.
Sultan Abdullah’s election had been widely expected, as the Pahang ruler was next in line based on a rotation order established among the country’s nine state rulers.
There were reports that the Russian (pictured), who has also worked as a model in China and Thailand, was expecting their first child
The wedding was alcohol free and all food was halal. The king was dressed in Malaysian national clothes, and the bride wore a white wedding dress
The nine ethnic Malay state rulers take turns serving as Malaysia’s monarch for five-year terms under the world’s only such system, which has been maintained since the country’s independence from Britain in 1957.
Known as the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong, or He Who is Made Lord, Malaysia’s king plays a largely ceremonial role, since administrative power is vested in the prime minister and Parliament.
But the monarch is highly regarded as the guardian of Islam and Malay tradition, particularly among the ethnic Malay Muslim majority.
The king is the nominal head of the government and armed forces. All laws, Cabinet appointments and the dissolution of Parliament for general elections require his assent. The king also issues pardons for criminals.
Malaysia’s Constitution allocates some 5 million ringgit (£930,000) a year for the expenses of the king and his household, including palace maintenance, although the sum can be increased with Cabinet approval.