King Charles may not be one of the UK’s 165 billionaires, however, his wealth has sparked the interest of many around the world.

Even though the monarch’s overall net worth may be worth up to £1.8billion, his personal wealth totals £610million, according to The Sunday Times’ 2024 Rich List.

This is due to the fact that most of Charles’s inherited assets, like the Duchy of Cornwall, the Crown Estate or the Royal Collection, are not owned by him but are usually passed to each reigning sovereign.

And it seems like Charles’s wealth is much smaller, around 36 times than that of one of the richest royal in the world – King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand.

Also known as Rama X, Thailand’s king is the wealthiest monarch in the world with his net worth estimated to be between a whooping £23billion to £33.9billion. Taken at it’s lowest estimate, that means Rama X is worth a whopping 37 times more than King Charles’s personal wealth, or 56 times at the higher estimate.

His wealth is mainly sourced from Thailand’s Crown Property Bureau – an agency which manages the king’s property and wealth.

According to Reuters, the CPB holds 6,560 hectares of land and 40,000 rental contracts nationwide.

Some of its most notable assets are real estate in Bangkok, the Siam Commercial Bank and the Siam Cement Group.

Vajiralongkorn ascended to the Thai throne in December 2016 at the age of 64, following the death of his father, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), in October of that year.

He is currently the oldest Thai monarch to ascend to the throne.

But his reign has been plagued by many controversies regarding his authoritarian behaviour, wealth, as well as the public’s perception of him.

Just one year after his father’s passing, Vajiralongkorn asserted total control of the Crown Property Bureau, and the next year, it was reported that its assets of £23,7 billion were turned over to the new monarch.

He also reportedly sacked several palace officials who had worked for his father for decades over the palace’s interest and appointed new ones.

In 2019, he took control of two army units after citing Article 172 of the Thai constitution, which allows for the issuing of a royal decree in an emergency that threatens national security and the monarchy, according to Reuters, with a king’s order which was signed by then prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. He never explained what the emergency was.

The same year, the King of Thailand fired a total of 11 people from the palace in one week while also stripping his royal consort of all her titles and privileges, according to the Business Insider.

While Vajiralongkorn is protected by Thailand’s lese-majeste law, which forbids any criticism and insults to members of the royal family, his demeanour has been a controversial subject in the country, although not in an official or public capacity.

The Thai King has long been known to have an “erratic” behaviour and to lead an extravagant lifestyle.

Many foreign outlets criticising him have been blocked in Thailand, including the Economist, which published plenty of reports.

One of them in 2010, claimed that Vajiralongkorn was “widely loathed and feared” and “unpredictable to the point of eccentricity”.

Online journal Asia Sentinel was also blocked after it claimed the Thai king was “regarded as erratic and virtually incapable of ruling”.

King Vajiralongkorn has married five times and has seven children.

He married his first wife, his first cousin Princess Soamsawali Kitiyakara, in 1977 and they had one daughter, Princess Bajrakitiyabha, who was born in December 1978.

During the late 1970s, the Thai king reportedly had an affair with then actress Yuvadhida Polpraserth, who he ended up having five children with, however, Princess Soamsawali until he sued her for divorce in January 1993, with charges she could not dispute due to Thailand’s lese-majeste law and they officially divorced later that year.

One year later, the king married his partner Yuvadhida Polpraserth. They had five children before their marriage, sons Juthavachara Vivacharawongse (1979), Vacharaesorn Vivacharawongse (1981), Chakriwat Vivacharawongse (1983) and Vatchrawee Vivacharawongse (1985) along with one daughter, Princess Sirivannavaric (1987).

Just two years after their marriage, Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, as she is now known, fled to Britain with their children before the king accused her of adultery. He stripped her and their sons of their royal titles, while he reportedly “abducted” his daughter and brought her back to the country, making her a princess.

Vajiralongkorn’s third marriage came in 2001 to commoner Srirasmi Suwadee, who served him since 1992. They had a son together, Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, born in 2005. But they divorced in 2014 after allegations of corruption in Srirasmi Suwadee’s family emerged.

In May 2019, shortly before his coronation, he married former acting commander of the Royal Thai Aide-de-Camp Department Suthida Tidjai, who was given the title of queen consort. Two months later he also gave the title of Royal Noble Consort to Major General Niramon Ounprom. She was stripped of the title in October after being accused of being disrespectful to Queen Suthida. Her titles were restored in 2020

Despite being King of Thailand, Vajiralongkorn has spent much of his time living abroad, and particularly Germany, namely at the lakeside villa in the town of Tutzing. Germany is also where one of his sons, Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, reportedly goes to school.

It’s been reported that he had changed the Thai constitution in order to not appoint any regent when he is away from the country, due to his constant absence.

His living arrangements sparked huge controversy in Thailand and Germany particularly in 2020, when he reportedly rented and lived at a hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

In October of the same year, protests took place at the German Embassy in Bangkok with people petitioning that the Germany government investigate whether Vajiralongkorn was exercising powers from German soil.