It is well known that King Sihanouk's wife was Queen Monilie. Queen Moniret was originally named Monique, and decades ago she was known as Princess Monique.
But Queen Monilie had never been a princess, and she was not the king's daughter. Her father was a wealthy French businessman doing business in Cambodia, and her mother was a Cambodian woman of Chinese descent.
Queen Monilie was the 6th concubine of King Sihanouk, and king Sihanouk had 5 concubines before marrying Queen Monilie. When Queen Monilie married King Sihanouk, there were at least three more concubines in the palace, and Queen Monilie wanted to share a husband with them, and Monilie was not yet a queen, just an ordinary concubine.
King Sihanouk's first 5 concubines were mostly Cambodian women, including three royal princesses and a Lao beauty. Southeast Asian women generally have dark skin, which can compare to Queen Monilie's skin like snow? None of these concubines were as beautiful as Queen Monilie.
Queen Monilie is of Four Kingdoms lineage, and she has both the silhouette of a Westerner and the femininity of an Oriental. The beauty of Queen Monilie is difficult to describe in words, and it can be said that it is the color of the country and the style is unique.
In love, it is still beautiful women who have the upper hand. As soon as Queen Monilje entered the Cambodian harem, all the concubines fell out of favor. King Sihanouk abandoned his former concubines for queen Monilie and lived a monogamous life with Queen Monilie.
King Sihanouk was once known as a playboy, but after meeting Queen Monilie, he became a loyal husband and never looked for flowers to ask for willows. Why?
I am afraid that it is because of Queen Monilie's extraordinary beauty and gentle character. Beauty can be temporarily attractive, but it is easy to fall in love and difficult to get along with, and there are no heroes and beauties in marriage. No matter how beautiful a woman is for a long time, she will make people look at aesthetic fatigue. Queen Monilie first conquered King Sihanouk with her beauty, and then used her gentleness and virtuousness to make love more lasting.
Look at the autobiography of King Sihanouk, who proudly boasted of the beauty of his wife, Queen Monilie, and took pride in the beauty of Queen Monilie, and also wrote without hesitation about the admiration of many foreign chiefs for Queen Monilie.
How easy is it to conquer a playboy? Queen Monilie had extraordinary charm that transformed King Sihanouk's marriage from polygamy to monogamy.
When Sihanouk and Queen Monilie fell in love, Queen Monilie was a 15-year-old girl who was studying in secondary school. Her sister told her that the playboy was not worth entrusting for life, but Queen Monilie had a good idea at a young age, and she fell in love with King Sihanouk, married King Sihanouk, and won happiness with her own efforts.
Although King Sihanouk had 6 concubines, she had only married two of them, Princess Noria and Queen Monilieh. King Sihanouk first married Princess Noria and then married Queen Monilieh on the 2nd day. So Princess Nolia should be considered the wife of King Sihanoukville.
But King Sihanouk went on a foreign visit, taking only Queen Monilie and not Princess Nolia. By that time King Sihanouk had abdicated and become a prince. Princess Noria and Queen Monilie were both princesses and had equal status. Princess Noria's wife was vacant, and Princess Noria, who was later snubbed, voluntarily left King Sihanoukville and settled in France.
Queen Monilieh thus became the only wife of King Sihanouk, while the other concubines who had not been married were even more insignificant and silently abandoned.
King Sihanouk's transition from polygamy to monogamy was also a gradual process, and it was not that he had just married Queen Monilie and abandoned all his concubines. Of course, the specific details are only known to the parties themselves. Anyway, by the time Queen Monilie was 20 years old, she had become the only wife of King Sihanouk, and the other concubines were no longer in King Sihanouk's life.
The Cambodian royal family is all polygamous, King Sihanoukville's grandfather, King Monivong, has more than 60 concubines, King Sihanouk is the first king to observe monogamy, and the king's marriage goes from polygamy to monogamy, which is from ignorance to civilization.
The love affair between King Sihanouk and Queen Monilie is a good story, and a few years later it is a beautiful love story in history.
Reference: The Sihanoukville Family
The Unsinkable King – Sihanoukville