Siaosi Tupouoa ( Tong. Siaosi Manumataongo ʻAlaivahamamaʻo ʻAhoʻeitu Konstantin Tukuʻaho ; born September 17, 1985 ) - Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Tonga . He became the heir to the throne in March 2012 after the accession of his father Tupou VI to the throne.
| Siaosi Tupoutoa | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Monarch | Tupou VI | ||||||
| Birth | |||||||
| Father | |||||||
| Mother | |||||||
| Spouse | |||||||
| Children | |||||||
Content
Wedding
On July 12, 2012, the Crown Prince married his second cousin Sinaitakale Fakafanua, and 2000 people attended the wedding. At that time, the Crown Prince was 26 years old, and his wife was 25 years old. Sinaitakala Fakafanua is 26th in line for the Tongan throne.
The wedding marked the first marriage of the Tongan crown prince in sixty-five years. The ceremony was held in the main building of the free Tonga Church in Nukualof , and more than 2,000 guests attended it, including the families of the rulers of Samoa and Fiji. The bridegroom was wearing a three-piece gray and black suit, while the bride wore a long sleeve, lace wedding dress with a veil that reached the floor of the church.
Polemic
The marriage between the Crown Prince and Fakafanua caused controversy over the ongoing practice of marriage with close relatives. The Royal Protocol requires members of the royal family to marry noble families to maintain a “strong” lineage.
The wedding between cousins was openly criticized by several members of the kingdom's political and royal circles. Two prominent members of the Tonga royal family, Queen Mother Halaevalu Mataahoahome and King's sister, Princess Salote Piloleva Tuita, did not approve of the marriage and refused to attend the ceremony. The daughter of the Princess of the Kingdom of Tonga, Frederick Thuit, the ninth in line for the throne, openly condemned this union, calling royal contractual marriages "extremely arrogant and only perpetuated the motive for social climbers." Samiuel’s pro-democracy leader, ли Akilisi Pohiva also criticized the wedding, saying to TVNZ , “they are too closed ... I don’t know about the biological effects of two close bloods mixed together, but I think they need new blood from the outside.” The leader of the Tongan community living in New Zealand , Will Ilolahia, said many Tongans opposed the marriage of second cousins but did not want to speak out publicly.
The crown prince's uncle, Lord Wai, defended marriage, saying: “This is a new beginning for the royal family. They are both twenty years old, and we are counting on this to preserve the constitutional monarchy in Tonga. ” Despite initial objections, it is reported that the marriage is happy, and the Crown couple regularly appears in public.
Children
His first-born son, Prince Taufaahau Manumataongo , was born May 10, 2013 in the city hospital in Auckland , New Zealand, becoming the second in the line of inheritance of the Tongan throne , after his father. On July 12, 2014 , the Crown Princess gave birth to a daughter, Princess Halaevalu Mata'aho, also at Auckland City Hospital.