News has emerged that Malaysia's former king, Sultan Muhammad V, who had stepped down from the throne to marry a Russian model, has divorced his wife using triple talaq.
The news of the divorce comes just months after rumours were rife that the former king and the former Miss Moscow were married. Speculations of his marriage came about last year when the Sultan was officially on medical leave.
The Sultan Muhammad V had abdicated the throne two years after he ascended it. He announced his abdication in January.
Surprisingly, Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko, the Russian ex-beauty queen, shows no sign of the divorce and she continues to post pictures of her family. She has said that there is no divorce, Times of India states.
"I have never heard of any divorce statements made directly to me," she told news portal Malaysiakini.
However, the former king's Singapore-based lawyer, Koh Tien Hua, issued a statement saying that he "has irrevocably divorced Ms Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko on Jun 22, 2019 by three talaqs in accordance with syariah laws."
Triple talaq is a concept in Islam where a Muslim man can have an instant divorce from his wife by saying the word 'talaq' three times without the law coming in between. In the Arabic language, the word 'talaq' means 'you are divorced'.
An Islamic court In Kelantan, a state in north-eastern Malaysia where Muhammad is still the ruler, issued a divorce certificate for the couple.
Rihana gave birth to a baby boy in May. However, the sultan's lawyer claims that they are not sure if the sultan is the biological father of the baby boy, New Straits Times reports.
