Love Story of a Swedish Princess and a Malaysian Prince
The Hereditary Princes of Kelantan have announced the birth of their first child, “a male” destined to become the next heir to the sultanate of Kelantan and probable ruler of Malaysia. The little one was born last Monday in a hospital in Kota Bharu, the capital of Kelantan, and has brought back to the headlines the mother, Princess Sofie Louise, protagonist a few years ago of a palace love story that attracted the attention of the international press.
The Unconventional Couple
Princess Sofie Louise, in fact, is Swedish and was born thousands of kilometers away from Malaysia: an origin that she just remembered after the birth of her first child (sharing in the stories of her popular Instagram account a Swedish flag with the baby’s birthday) and to which she usually pays homage by wearing the traditional Swedish costume. Born in the Swedish city of Linköping in 1986, Sofie Louise Johansson Petra met the Hereditary Prince of Kelantan, Muhammad Faiz Petra while working as an au pair in the United Kingdom. Prince Muhammad, for his part, was in London to study History.
The First Monarch to Abdicate in Malaysian History
In April 2019, the two fiancés got married at the Grand Hall Palace in Kota Bharu, residence of the sultans of Kelantan and also the venue for official ceremonies of the sultanate, thus becoming their designated heirs. Prince Muhammad is the brother of the current Sultan of Kelantan, Muhammad V, who himself was the protagonist of a similar love story but with a different ending: in 2018, in fact, the Sultan married a Russian celebrity and model, from whom he divorced shortly after without recognizing her legitimate son. Consequently, it will be his brother and his nephew who will succeed Muhammad V as Sultan of Kelantan, a title that will probably allow them to become King of Malaysia. Unlike in European kingdoms, in the country the monarchy is not hereditary, but elective: each monarch is elected from the various sultans of the kingdom for a term of 5 years. The current King of Malaysia is the Sultan of Pahang, but it is foreseeable that both the Hereditary Prince of Kelantan and his son will eventually sit on the throne, while Sofie Louise will become the first Western queen of Malaysia. Until 2019, the king of the country was the current Sultan of Kelantan, Muhammad V, who, however, due to his relationship with his Russian fiancée, decided to abdicate, going down in history as the first Malaysian monarch to take such a decision.
