Indonesian model breaks silence on abusive marriage to Malaysian prince at 16: 'I did not have a real choice'

(File photo)

In the year 2008, Malaysian prince Tengku Fakhry married an Indonesian-American model named Manohara Odelia. Manohara was just 16 at the time of her ‘marriage’, and she fled Malaysia a year later, alleging daily sexual abuse and physical punishments at the hand of her husband.

She called the traumatic marriage to the prince - "coercive, non-consensual, and illegal".

In a strong statement issued on her Instagram account, Odelia called for a correction of her public narrative, specifically rejecting the media's use of the term "ex-wife" to describe her relationship with the Malaysian prince, according to a report by NDTV.

The model, now 33, has now opened up about the incident and clarified that her 2008 union was neither consensual nor legal, but rather a case of coercive marriage. She said that as a minor, she lacked the capacity to give informed consent and was subjected to coercion and isolation.

Odelia urged journalists and digital platforms like Google and Wikipedia to use more accurate and ethical language that reflects the reality of child marriage and abuse rather than sanitising it.

She reiterated that her year in the Kelantan royal palace involved strict control, isolation, and alleged physical and sexual abuse before her dramatic 2009 escape from a Singapore hotel.

"What occurred during my teenage years was not a romantic relationship, not a consensual relationship, and not a legal marriage. There was never a relationship I wanted, agreed to, or entered into voluntarily. At the time, I was a minor and was in a situation of coercion and lack of freedom, meaning I did not have a real choice or the capacity to give consent," she wrote in the post.

Tengku Muhammad Fakhry Petra, the son of the Sultan of Malaysia’s Kelantan state, married Indonesian model Manohara Odelia Pinot in 2008 when she was just 16. The marriage quickly became controversial, with Manohara later alleging that she was subjected to physical and emotional abuse, strict control and isolation while living in Kelantan.

She claimed she was not allowed to move freely, had limited contact with her family, and was effectively confined within the palace.

In 2009, Manohara made a dramatic escape to Indonesia from a hotel in Singapore during a royal family trip. She escaped with the help of her mother, local police and officials from the US embassy.

“Sexual abuse and sexual harassment were like a daily routine for me,” she later told an Indonesia news outlet Detik, according to ABC News. “And he did that every time I did not want to have sexual intercourse.”