California singer learnt she was 'separated' from a sultan. She didn't even know she was married

American recording artist Brittany Porter was shocked after she recently learnt that she had married Malaysian Sultan Muhammad V a year ago. In fact, this realisation didn't come until after she was even separated, and she remained oblivious to it for a long time. Sultan Muhammad V is the ruler of the Malaysian state of Kelantan. Porter has come out with all the details of what happened between them and how he cut her off without any intimation. She says that following luxury trips, shopping sprees and more, they had a ceremony in Oman, which she believed was an engagement. However, after the Sultan ghosted her almost a year later, she realised that what they had was in fact the nikah, the Muslim religious ceremony. Now she is asking for a proper divorce.

Porter met the Sultan in January 2024 in New York through mutual friends. "We had this instant chemistry and good banter," the singer told This Week in Asia, adding that he was "intelligent" and has a "cute British accent." “We were just friends at first, but we started talking every day and the next thing you know …” He started splurging on her, taking her and her friends on expensive holidays to Thailand and the Middle East, buying luxury bags, jewellery, blue diamonds "matching her eyes" and more. He loves hotels; he probably spent millions on them for our trips,” Porter said.

In Malaysia, she was expected to wear and dress in a particular way

Things took a turn when they returned to Malaysia. Everyone started calling her “Che Puan”, a courtesy title for non-royal women who marry senior royalty. She was told to dress and act a certain way, and her shopping expenses and their schedules became points of conflict. Her current clothes did not cut it in Malaysia. "We went on shopping trips to get new clothes, but then he’d complain about how much I spent even though we’d spent lots more before," Porter said, adding that she believes he was upset about something else but used money as an excuse. She then had a miscarriage in July, and in October, the Sultan blocked her.

She went to Malaysia and then Singapore, but he did not let her reach his hotel room. "He wouldn’t answer his door, so I got a room there and kept texting, asking if he wanted to talk. In the middle of the night, he just got on a plane and left. His butler texted me, apologising," she said. The Sultan then contacted one of her friends and told her they were "separated." Ported was shocked to hear this since she didn't even know they were married. "I’ve gone from thinking I was a fiancée to realising I was married to now being separated," she said. “In April 2024, we went on our first trip together to Oman...they brought an imam out and I did the whole conversion, but he didn’t teach me all that much about Islam,” she said.

After learning about Islamic divorce, she checked her phone for a message where he might have given her triple talak. "I learned about the Islamic divorce method of talak and checked old texts to see if he had talak-ed me, but there’s nothing along those lines,” she said. Now she is asking for closure, and a "proper divorce, a proper apology." She has now written songs about her heartbreak and betrayal.