Rotten Mango
Teen Model Marries Malaysian Prince - Then Runs Away Alleging Nightly Razor Torture
Sun, 9 Feb 2025
16 year old Manohara is walking up towards the private plane. Her mother and sister are grabbing their bags from the black car behind her. She’s walking up the private jet steps… when she feels something. It’s a wave of panic? A sixth sense? Something in her body is telling her this is not where she should be right now. She turns around and starts heading back down the steps when she hears footsteps behind her. 5 burly men come up behind her and grab her by the arms, dragging her onto the plane. They slam her down onto her seat and refuse to let her leave. They refuse to let her family get on board. The instructions were allegedly very clear. Kidnap 16 year old Manohara and make sure she is returned to her rightful place in the palace. To her husband. The Prince of Malaysia. Full show notes at rottenmangopodcast.com.
Chapter 1: What are the differences between commercial and private air travel?
Even when you're up in the sky, there is a hierarchy of classes, economic classes. I mean, yes, we have seen all of the memes of when people are sitting in their first class seat, drinking their little glassware champagne. They watch everybody else walk way to the back to their little seat of shame in 37D. But there's someone above first class too, quite literally. Private air travel.
Private jets typically fly higher than commercial airlines. They fly 41,000 feet up in the sky, while commercial airliners generally stay at around 35,000 feet. The higher you fly, the less fuel you burn, and since private jets are typically lighter, they fly at higher altitudes. They're on top of us. There's less air traffic up there. Commercial airliners, sometimes you're stuck in a traffic jam.
not private jets. They have more direct routes in the skies. They fly more efficiently. There's less turbulence up there. And we knew someone who would fly private from LA to Paris and she would drop like $400,000. to fly to LA, to Paris, and then back. And it was the most ridiculous thing in the history of the world.
And aside from the convenience of just going straight up to the plane, you can actually control who's joining you on the flight. If you don't like that person who's coughing behind you, they don't have to be on the flight. You don't like babies on the flight, babies don't have to be on the flight. And sometimes you even have the full discretion of all of the attendants and even the pilots
There have been many stories where a lot of private jet companies, when they hire pilots, when they hire flight attendants, they're signing some crazy NDAs, non-disclosures. They cannot talk about the clients that they fly. They cannot talk about the conversations that are had while they're in flight. You can't theoretically control them.
You can't make them fly off the flight plan, but there is a level of control that you have when you're in a private jet. Perhaps they see something that you do, and if it's not dangerous or if it's not illegal, maybe they just look the other way. 16-year-old Manohara is walking up to the private jet that's waiting for her. She's walking across the tarmac. She's climbing up the stairs.
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Chapter 2: How was Manohara allegedly kidnapped onto a private jet?
And her mom and her sister are getting their things from the car because, you know, like the car parks right next to the jet. And they're about to walk right up behind her. They're just grabbing their luggage. She's halfway up the flight of stairs leading to the plane when she feels it's like a sixth sense. That's how she describes it. Something is so weird about this. It just doesn't make sense.
The energy of this plane is off. The vibes, the feng shui, the juju of this plane, however you want to describe it, the sixth sense radar is going off. She doesn't want to be here. She turns on her heels to go back down the steps to join her mom and her sister. But these two buff, burly looking guys, they run down from inside the plane.
They run out of the plane onto the steps and they drag her by the arms and drag her up the stairs, throw her into a private jet seat. The flight attendants, they slam the door shut. And now she's on this private jet. She's screaming at every single person on the plane. Like, hello, my mother and my sister are down there. Why are you closing the door? Why are you forcibly yanking me up the jet?
Like what's going on? You need to let me off this plane. I don't want to be on this plane anymore. And they're looking at her like she's the crazy one. Like they did not just kidnap her right now. I'm sorry, ma'am. Please calm down. The engine to the plane has just started, which means that I am unable to open this door again. What do you mean you're unable to open the door?
Then just turn the engine off. What are you even saying right now? The five bodyguards walk up to 16-year-old Manohara. They force her into the seat and they start manhandling her. If she tries to get up, they just slam her back down onto the seat. She's like this tiny little 16-year-old. These are five full-grown men. There's no way. She's not going to be able to fight these guys off.
As for her mother and her sister, she can see them on the tarmac freaking out. And there's also some burly men holding them back. And with that, the plane just takes off. And there's nothing anybody can do. Her mom and her sister are just helplessly watching from the tarmac. A 16-year-old Manohara is being kidnapped on a private jet. And the instructions were apparently very clear.
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Chapter 3: What is the cultural significance of susuk?
Thank you.
We would like to thank today's sponsors who have made it possible for Rotten Mango to support the National Network to End Domestic Violence, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a world where partner-related workplace and stalking violence no longer exists. This episode's partnerships have also made it possible to support Rotten Mango's growing team.
And we'd also like to thank you guys for your continued support as we work on our mission to be worthy advocates. As always, full show notes are available at rottenminglepodcast.com. A few disclaimers for today's case. There are a few mentions of DV and SA, so please be careful. With that being said, let's get into it. Imagine acupuncture, but you leave the needles in you. Forever.
You get up, you go about your day with needles forever embedded into you. They are one with you. I mean, it feels like there is absolutely no reason why anybody would want to do that unless it fixes your life, unless it brings you a lot of money. What if I told you if you stick five needles inside of you and keep them in there forever, you could be the most handsome person in town.
You could be the richest person that you know. It's called susuk. It's a charm needle and it's usually made of gold or silver. There are needles that are inserted into your body, into the soft tissue. So a lot of the times it's in the face, in the chin area, the cheeks, your back. And the needle has intention.
Whether you asked for wealth, health, happiness, beauty, the shaman or the doctor, whoever is enchanting the charm needle will make sure it goes into the intended place and make sure that it has the intended goal. And you, as the person with the needles inside of you, you've got really one job. Okay, you've got two jobs.
If you are to get an MRI, which is when they put you in that giant machine and you cannot have any metal on you, you can't wear a necklace, you can't wear earrings because they will rip, fly out of your ear onto the machine. It's magnetic. It attracts metal. If you're gonna get an MRI, it would be beneficial to tell your doctor that you have metal needles inside of you.
Otherwise, they will tear through your tissue to get to the MRI machines. You could also probably tell your doctor when you get an x-ray because they're going to be in for a shock. That's like the main rule. But the other main rule is don't tell anyone where that charm is. Don't tell anyone where the needles are.
The minute that you tell someone where it is and why it's there for, it loses its magic. It no longer is effective. But that doesn't mean that everybody tries really hard to find a unique spot. The most common spots for women are on the face, the back, and sometimes, this is not as common, but interestingly, in the private areas to be embedded.
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Chapter 4: How did Manohara become involved with the Malaysian royal family?
These are what the jealous people are saying. There's probably nowhere near that if she even has any, but that's the only explanation that makes sense for everybody that's seen her. They say everybody who has met Manohara in person, it's like you're seeing, whatever you see in pictures is only one 10th of how beautiful she is in real life. She looks like the Angelina Jolie of Indonesia.
That's how people describe her. Before she even graduates high school, she is named one of Indonesia's 100 most precious women by Harper's Bazaar Indonesia. The rest of us were just like cold rice. But in all honesty, she's very stunning. I mean, some say after she was born, her mom realized how beautiful she was, so she decided to take her down the beauty queen model route.
Others say, no, her mom manifested this. When she was pregnant, she chose the name Manohara. Manohara in Sanskrit means the thief of hearts. August 2008, Manohara, the thief of hearts, gets invited to a high-profile political dinner, which sounds kind of strange, but it seems like Daisy, Manohara's mother, is this master networker. Mano is working as a model.
Her mom is working on marketing her daughter to high society. She's trying to make Mano into a socialite. And the whole family is always attending random high profile, high security clearance events. And this dinner is even bigger. The people in the room are going to be some of the most powerful people in the entire nation, in the entire country. She sits down.
Mano is probably a bit nervous, but she's handling it very well. And at the very end, after dessert has been served, Mano looks up and a woman is staring at her. Okay, I agree. It is to be done. She's good. The wedding will be on the 26th. Mano smiles and she's like, you're talking to me right now? She thought she was talking to somebody else. And she's like, okay, but you're looking at me.
We're making eye contact. Is there somebody behind me? Because this doesn't make, you're talking, what are you even saying right now? Somebody next to her hands her this piece of paper and it's an invitation to a wedding. To Manohara's own wedding. She is getting invited to be the bride at her own wedding. You cannot be serious. What do you mean?
The wedding date is set for the next week, seven days. The groom is the man sitting right next to her and Mano is laughing and she's giggling like, no, no, no, no, no.
no i'm not the groom is just sitting next to her all smiley he's not equally confused he's not wondering wait why am i getting married i don't even know this girl like that nothing he's just smiling looking at her he doesn't even look concerned that his potential hypothetical bride doesn't even want to marry him it's very weird the woman the groom's mother looks straight at her and says you will be getting married this week everything has already been done and if you don't do this you will embarrass our family
And nobody embarrasses the royal family of Malaysia. The man sitting next to Mano is her future groom. He is the third prince of Kelantan, one of the nine royal families of Malaysia. Muhammad Fakhri Petra, the crown prince of Kelantan, one of the nine royal families in Malaysia. Malaysia is very interesting. I believe it's the only system in the world that operates like this.
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Chapter 5: What was Manohara's experience as a young bride in Malaysia?
So to some degree, I'm sure it's flattering that the prince is interested in marrying her. But with all due respect, Manohara is like, he's 14 years older than me. And it's kind of starting to show. He's balding. Which is not to say that he's not attractive. But, you know, people have their preferences. And more importantly than that, Manohara was 14 years old when they met.
So he was double her age. He's not just 14 years older. She's 14 years old. he's double her age he was pursuing her yes that's why she had no idea he was pursuing her because she's like do you know i mean you do know i am 14 she's 16 now when they tell her that she's getting married which is still no good at all but she was 14 when they first met
So it's very unclear how any of this is okay, but clearly Manahara is not interested. She's 16, she's trying to focus on her career. No offense, she's not interested in some old man. She didn't even in a million years think that he was interested. She says, I just didn't see anything between us. Honestly, I didn't even consider him a close friend. I just considered him somebody I knew.
It was kind of like, you know, you go to dinner with your mom and a family friend of your mom, and you know that they're probably an influential, powerful person, and you're bored out of your mind, but you have to act like you're interested. But ultimately, you feel like you're there because your mom is there. They're not coming to meet you.
Yeah, and then the next day, you found out that you guys are getting married.
Yeah, and you get invited to your own wedding. She also has a boyfriend back home in Indonesia. And she's like, okay, by the way, I also have a boyfriend that is a lot more age appropriate. So perhaps this union is ill-advised. Maybe we could go back to the drawing board. She at first politely declines. And then later she starts aggressively declining because nobody is taking no for an answer.
The prince's mom is telling her, we have already sent out the invitations. We have set up a venue. If you do not do this, this will be a huge embarrassment for the whole royal family. Manohara is known to be incredibly graceful, but she is putting her foot down. Frankly speaking, I mean, this may sound a little bit rude, ma'am, but I don't care what was done to prepare for the wedding.
I'm not getting married. It's already creepy, but it's just getting weirder because why are they being so persistent? Manohar is thinking, he's the prince. I'm sure if you put out a little bolo, a be on the lookout or anything, there would be age-appropriate women lining out the palace gates if they knew that he was trying to get married next week. Why me? I'm not even Malaysian. What's going on?
The feeling is probably something along the lines of, who died and made you king? But clearly not applicable in this situation. August 26, 2008, Mano becomes dubbed the most beautiful princess in Malaysia. They get married. They get married with a six-tier wedding cake, a big diamond wedding band.
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Chapter 6: How did Manohara attempt to escape her situation?
This is her chance. She doesn't know if she's going to leave Malaysia ever again because prior to all of this, prior to the then Sultan of Kelantan, so Prince Fakhri's father getting sick and being hospitalized in Singapore, she was not really allowed to ever leave Malaysia. It's easier to control her when she's in Malaysia. This is her only chance.
She asks if she can go down to the lobby to fetch something and the bodyguards have to escort her. They take her out of her room. They walk down the hotel hallway. They get into the elevator and they're all standing there. It's just her and the royal bodyguards inside of this random hotel elevator in Singapore.
And she looks up and there's that little half ball, black half ball on the ceiling, the CCTV camera. And she says very calmly, there are CCTV cameras inside this elevator. The bodyguards are thrown off. Like, what a random thing to say out of nowhere. I mean, is that a threat? Before they can even react, Mano's hand is already pressing up against the emergency button in the elevator.
The alarms start blaring. Everyone in the hotel is going to hear it. Not only that, when the emergency stop button is pressed on the elevator, more than likely the police have to respond immediately. Regardless of if it's a false alarm or not, police have to show up on the premises. So now the alarms are going off. It's just Mano and a handful of bodyguards in the elevator.
They're trying to restrain her. They're trying to sedate her. I mean, perhaps the princess has lost her mind. Maybe that's what they're going to tell the police. The princess has been under a lot of stress after the sultan has been sick. She doesn't like traveling too much. She was beyond herself. So she pressed the emergency button. But she keeps reminding them, we are not in Malaysia anymore.
You try to do anything. We are in Singapore. Everything is caught on cameras. The bodyguards back off. Mano starts screaming for help. She's banging on the doors. The hotel staff arrive. The police arrive. And crazy enough, Mano's mom and sister arrive. The businessman that she passed the note to, ever since she passed that note, he's pretty close to the royal family.
He's an influential businessman. He has been getting updates on Mano, trying to track where she's going. And once they left for Singapore because the sultan was sick, he contacted Daisy, Mano's mom, saying she's in Singapore. She's staying at this hotel. You gotta go find her.
Oh, you got to go save her.
Yes.
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