A Change of Guard

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Thursday 28 April 2011

Cambodia’s king ‘too busy’ to attend British royal wedding


Yorkshire Post
Published 23 April 2011

Leading figures from British society and across the globe will attend next week’s Royal wedding, but absent from their number will be one notable face – the King of Cambodia.

King Norodom Sihamoni (pictured) will not be joining other crowned heads of state, prime ministers, ambassadors and other dignitaries at Prince William and Kate Middleton’s marriage ceremony.

He will be missing from a gathering of foreign royalty that includes everyone from the Sultan of Brunei to King Constantine, the former sovereign of Greece, and his wife Queen Anne-Marie.

The list of celebrities attending the Westminster Abbey ceremony is headed by David and Victoria Beckham and also features Sir Elton John and partner David Furnish, television presenter Ben Fogle and wife Marina and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

Prime Minister David Cameron, with wife Samantha, will lead the Government’s guest list and is expected to be joined by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam.

Other senior cabinet ministers are also expected to attend as well as opposition leader Ed Miliband and fiancee Justine Thornton.

Those invited also include faces from Miss Middleton’s home parish of Bucklebury in Berkshire.

John Haley, the landlord of Kate’s favourite country pub the Old Boot Inn, will be among the guests as will butcher Martin Fidler and local postman Ryan Naylor.

It is believed that King Norodom’s official office has not replied to the wedding invitation that went out a few months ago.

A St James’s Palace spokesman said they would not comment on the attendance of guests.

King Norodom was imprisoned under house arrest with his parents and younger brother for three years in the late 1970s when the brutal Khmer Rouge regime were in power.

A talented ballet dancer, he went on to work as a professor of classical dance for almost two decades before he became monarch, when his father King Sihanouk abdicated in 2004.

A spokesman for the Cambodian Embassy in London confirmed the King would not be attending.

He said: “The King is not be available on that day. We have already informed Buckingham Palace.”

“He cannot come on that day as he has some personal reasons.”

4 comments:

. said...

You are not only miss rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous, but your names with them too.

Was it your own decision or someone else stopped you, it's a very bad move.

KampujNeadh-កម្ពុជនាថ said...

Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni cannot attend the wedding of Britain's Prince William, Phnom Penh's foreign ministry said Saturday, but denied he had ignored the invitation.

"His Majesty the King already responded to the invitation on April 8," Cambodian foreign ministry spokesman Koy Kuong told AFP.

"Due to his royal work, the king is unable to attend the royal wedding," he added.

King Sihamoni, 57, is currently in China for a medical checkup.

Anonymous said...

8:39 AM, I don't think it was the king's decision to snub the British royal wedding. I think it was Hun Sen's decision to stop the Cambodian monarchy from being more popular, well-known around the world or more powerful than himself. Remember, the king flew to Beijing one day after the Cambodian government sent a letter to the British government informing it that the Cambodian king is unable to attend the wedding. That was not a coincidence. The king went to Beijing because he was not happy with the government's decision not to let him attend the wedding.

Anonymous said...

11:02 PM

You could be right. Hun Sen has lots to fear. He doesn't want a British MI5 or CIA to know about his dictatorship regime through the Khmer King.

He also afraid of Sam Rainsy close by.

So Hun Sen stopped him from attending the wedding.