Russian beauty queen divorced by former Malaysian King proudly shows off their young son

A Russian beauty queen has proudly shown off her young son with her ex-husband, a former Malaysian King, amid an ongoing alimony dispute. 

Wealthy Sultan Muhammad V of Kelantan, 51, quit his throne in 2019 amid controversy over his relationship with model and businesswoman Oksana Voevodina, 28. 

They divorced later that year, little over a month after Voevodina gave birth to their son Tengku Ismail Leon Petra ibni Sultan Muhammad V – known as Leon – who turned two on Friday. 

Voevodina posted a video of herself and Leon on social media, saying: ‘It’s a special morning today’. 

Leon’s birthday celebration came amid an ongoing alimony dispute between his mother and the former King. 

Sources said that he initially paid an allowance of £5,800 a month for Leon’s upkeep. But the money stopped in December, prompting Voevodina to again post pictures of the boy to her 597,000 followers. 

‘It’s not fair on my son,’ she said at the time. 

The model and businesswoman also once received a message for the boy via an intermediary for her estranged former spouse, known as Faris to his friends: ‘Tell him he is the cutest thing in the world. From Faris.’ 

Voevodina, who converted to Islam prior to her marriage, was also instructed to make sure the boy did not eat pork.  

Voevodina has repeatedly offered to facilitate DNA tests to prove the boy was fathered by the ex-king, who has questioned the child’s paternity.

She claimed that her son is the ‘crown prince of the Sultanate of Kelantan and the future king of Malaysia’.

However, she has said: ‘My only aim is to live in peace and raise my son,’ she said.

‘I would love to be able to make a peace deal, to strike a friendship with my ex-husband.’

Voevodina is reportedly poised to appear in a new TV documentary alongside President Vladimir Putin’s ‘goddaughter’ – journalist and former Russian presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak. 

She recently spoke out about her marriage, saying she was ‘ready to share the most difficult period of my life.’

‘These two years were very difficult for me and, believe me, it is deceptive to think that I easily survived the divorce.’

The wealthy Sultan  still rules over the state of Kelantan, a position he has held since 2010. Voevodina, a former Miss Moscow, was his third wife.

He ended the marriage on July 1, with the ‘Triple Talaq’ Islamic procedure after he filed documents at the Singapore Syariah Court on June 22.   

‘My recovery was accompanied with insomnia, nervous breakdowns, endless fears about the future, and about responsibility for the child as I am the only person in the world for him,’ Voevodina said.

‘To be honest, I was not ready for this. I always dreamed of giving birth in a loving marriage.

‘And so I gave birth to a child for a man whose greatest dream in life was to have a child. Not a trace of marriage and love remained by this point.’  

Voevodina earlier rejected a $1 million settlement because it was meant to ‘shut her up’, according to her lawyer Ivan Melnikov.

There were also reported demands that Voevodina and Leon should never contact the British-educated former king.

‘Oksana does not ask for anything big for herself,’ Melnikov said.

‘She says she’ll work things out by herself.

‘But she does expect him to provide for the baby.’ 

Voevodina recently completed a ten-week course at the London School of Economics. 

Sobchak is nicknamed Putin’s ‘goddaughter’ for her close family ties to the Russian president, who attended her baptism. 

Her late father Anatoly Sobchak was Putin’s law professor, who went on to give the ex-KGB spy his first job in politics when the academic had a stint as mayor of St Petersburg.