Former Miss Moscow Allegedly Gets Married to Malaysian King Muhammad V, Reports Say

Malaysian prime minister says he can't confirm if king actually got married

Former Miss Moscow Oksana Voevodina got married Malaysia's King Muhammad V—just three years after she won the crown. (Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images)

Former Miss Moscow Oksana Voevodina married Malaysia’s King, Sultan Muhammad V—just three years after she won the crown, according to news reports and photos posted to social media.

Voevodina, 25, got married to the king, 49, in a lavish royal ceremony in the Russian capital. According to the New York Post, the 49-year-old king was dressed in Malaysian national clothing, and his bride wore a white wedding gown.

Photos of the apparent marriage ceremony were circulating widely on social media this week.

However, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Nov. 29 told the Straits Times that he could not confirm if King Muhammad V got married or not. “I don’t have the name or official confirmation. I can’t say anything,” he said.

The national palace of Malaysia, Istana Negara, hasn’t issued any statement to confirm the marriage, the report said.

The Daily Mail reported Nov. 22 that the wedding took place in a Moscow concert hall.

Little Known About Bride

Before she became the king’s bride, she recalled: “When I was at school I was a kind of bandit.“ But she added: ”I think that the man must be the head of the family and of course shall not earn less than a woman.”

It’s not known how the pair met or if she’s been married before. Reports say little is known about her other than her Miss Moscow victory.

Beauty contest director Tatiana Andreeva told the Mail that the two met “in Europe,” without elaborating where, while Voevodina was promoting high-end watches.

“'Oksana is a model. She worked a lot abroad, so an encounter of such a level is quite predictable,” Andreeva said. “She met Muhammad 18 months ago in Europe. Oksana worked at a watch display and she was standing by a poster and advertising the goods.”

She added: “Oksana’s parents were present at the wedding, they support their daughter in everything.”

She is also said to have graduated from the Faculty of Business at the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, the Daily Mail reported. Her father, Andrey Gorbatenko,  an orthopedic surgeon who is from Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia. “When I was performing [at the contest] there was my father sitting in the hall and he was like a reference point for me,” she said of her father. Her mother was a beauty contestant in a local contest in the 1990s after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union.

When she won Miss Moscow, she said: “My hobby is the design of female clothes and swimsuits. I sew women’s clothes by order, too.”

The Malaysian king was educated at Oakham School in Rutland, England, and as well as at St. Cross College in Oxford University. He later went to the European Business School in London, according to the Mail.

Malaysian reports claimed that Voyevodina had allegedly adopted Islam and changed her name to Rihana Oxana Gorbatenko in 2018, reported the Moscow Times.

The pair’s ceremony incorporated also apparently incorporated elements of both Malay and Russian cultures, IslamNews.ru reported.