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Sultan Marries Former TV Journalist Says Foreign Reports

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Kuala Lumpur - Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei married a former Malaysian television journalist as his second wife at a private ceremony, a news report said on Sunday.

The wedding on Saturday was attended by family members, relatives and close friends of the sultan and the bride, Azrinaz Mazhar Hakim, the New Sunday Times reported, quoting one of the guests. The wedding took place in Kuala Lumpur in a palace owned by the sultan that he uses during visits to Malaysia.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

The New Sunday Times said rumours of an affair between Hassanal, 59, and Azrinaz, 26, had been afloat for many months after she quit her job as news presenter on TV3 channel, saying she wanted to “venture into other undertakings.”

Azrinaz started work as a broadcast journalist with TV3 in 1997 and won the channel’s Most Promising Journalist award in 2000, the Times said.

The sultan’s first wife is Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Hajah Saleha and their son, Crown Prince Al Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah, is the heir to the throne of Brunei, an oil-rich country on Borneo Island.

The crown prince married a half-Swiss commoner teenager at a lavish wedding in September 2004.

The sultan, who presides over one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, took former stewardess Mariam Abdul Aziz as his second wife in October 1981. He divorced Mariam, who is of Brunei, Japanese and Scottish parentage, in February 2003.

The sultan ascended to the throne on October 5, 1967, after his father abdicated voluntarily. -- Courtesy of Associated Press

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