CAMBODIA: Monique Meets the King

Ambition, for most of the Eurasian girls at Cambodia's Descartes Seminary, consisted mainly of the wish one day to marry a French white-collar worker, a clerk, for instance, at the Banque de I'Indochine. But slim, delicate, bronzed Monique Izzi, daughter of a half-French, half-Italian father and a Cambodian mother, had quite another idea. Better, she thought, a real prince, even a Cambodian one with concubines, than a mere wage-earning European. A fragile and lovely center of interest in a bikini bathing suit by the pool at Le Cercle Sportif, Monique gave the cold shoulder to all European suitors and bided her time.

One day in 1951, as the handsome young King of Cambodia himself sat rapt in the audience, 16-year-old Monique carried away all honors in a beauty contest sponsored by UNESCO. For his young (29) majesty, Samdach Preah Upayuva-reach Norodom Sihanouk, it was a plain case of love at first sight, despite the fact that he was already bulwarked against loneliness by four concubines and ten children. He promptly invited Monique for a spin in his cream-colored Lancia and composed a song for her. Monique responded by quitting school, to the scandalized horror of the French set. As far as they were concerned, Monique had become just another concubine. They gasped twice again when Monique had two babies by the King, then forgot all about her.

In time, Sihanouk resigned his kingship and became his country's militantly nationalistic Premier. To dignify the changeover, early last April he married shy young Princess Taveth Norleach. Monique seemed definitely out in the cold—but there is no law in Cambodia limiting the number of wives or concubines a prince may take. When Sihanouk left for a holiday on the Riviera a fortnight ago, Monique was his companion, and her passport was made out to Madame Norodom Sihanouk. Last week the Cambodian government revealed that Sihanouk had made Monique Izzi his wife No. 2 less than a week after marrying the princess.

His major concession to both ladies: he has dropped his concubines.