Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala (Siaosi Manumataongo ʻAlaivahamamaʻo ʻAhoʻeitu Konstantin Tukuʻaho; born 17 September 1985) is Crown Prince of Tonga. Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala became

heir apparent An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...

to the throne in March 2012 upon the accession of his father,

Tupou VI Tupou VI (ʻAho‘eitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho; born 12 July 1959) is King of Tonga. The youngest child of King Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV, he served as Prime Minister of Tonga from 2000 to 2006. Following his elder brother's accession to the ...

, as

King King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

. Since January 2025, he has served as minister of foreign affairs and minister for His Majesty's Armed Forces.

Early life and education

Tukuʻaho was born on 17 September 1985 in

Nukuʻalofa Nukualofa ( , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Tonga. It is located on the north coast of the island of Tongatapu, in the country's southernmost island group. History First western records of Nukualofa On 10 June 1777, British ...

. He was educated at

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, graduating with a Master of Military and Defence Studies in 2018 and a Master of Diplomacy in 2021.

2012 wedding

On 12 July 2012, Crown Prince Tupoutoʻa ʻUlukalala married his double second cousin, Sinaitakala Fakafanua, in a wedding attended by 2,000 people. He was 26 years old at the time, while his wife was 25 years old. Sinaitakala Fakafanua is 26th in line to the Tongan throne. The wedding marked the first marriage of a Tongan

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

in sixty-five years. The ceremony was held at the Centennial Church of the

Free Church of Tonga The Free Church of Tonga ( Tongan: ''Siasi ʻo Tonga Tauʻatāina'') is a Christian denomination of Methodist extraction in the Kingdom of Tonga. The Church was established in 1885 by King George Tupou I and his government at Lifuka, Ha'apai, a ...

in Nuku'alofa, with more than 2,000 guests, including Samoan and Fijian chiefly families. The groom wore

morning dress Morning dress, also known as formal day dress, is the Formal attire, formal Western dress code for day wear (disambiguation), day attire, consisting chiefly of a morning coat, waistcoat, and formal trousers for men, and an appropriate gown for ...

, while the bride wore a long-sleeved, lace wedding gown with a veil that reached the floor of the church. A Maʻutohi ceremony, which celebrates the issuance of a marriage license, was held earlier in the week.

Controversy

The marriage between the Crown Prince and Fakafanua caused controversy over the continued practice of marrying closely related cousins. Tongan royal protocol requires that members of the royal family only marry members of noble families to maintain a 'strong'

bloodline Heredity, also called inheritance or biological inheritance, is the passing on of traits from parents to their offspring; either through asexual reproduction or sexual reproduction, the offspring cells or organisms acquire the genetic infor ...

. All royal marriages are arranged. The wedding between the cousins was openly criticised by a few members of Tongan political and royal circles. Two prominent members of the Tongan royal family,

Queen mother A queen mother is a former queen, often a queen dowager, who is the mother of the monarch, reigning monarch. The term has been used in English since the early 1560s. It arises in hereditary monarchy, hereditary monarchies in Europe and is also ...

Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe and the king's sister, Princess Royal Salote Pilolevu Tuita, disapproved of the marriage and refused to attend the ceremony. Daughter of the Princess Royal of Tonga, Hon. Frederica Tuita, who is ninth in line to the throne, openly condemned the union, calling the royal

arranged marriage Arranged marriage is a type of Marriage, marital union where the bride and groom are primarily selected by individuals other than the couple themselves, particularly by family members such as the parents. In some cultures, a professional matchmaki ...

"extremely arrogant and only perpetuated the motive behind social climbers". Pro-democracy leader ʻAkilisi Pohiva also criticised the wedding, telling

TVNZ Television New Zealand (, "Te Reo Tātaki" meaning "The Leading Voice"), more commonly referred to as TVNZ, is a New Zealand state-owned media company and Crown entity. The company operates a television network, streaming service, and news se ...

, "They are too close... I do not know about biological effects of two close bloods mixed together, but I think they need new blood from outside." A leader of Tongans living in

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

, Will Ilolahia, stated that many Tongans opposed the second cousins' marriage, but were unwilling to speak out publicly. A maternal uncle of the Crown Prince, Lord Vaea, defended the marriage saying, "It's a new beginning for the royal household. They are both in their twenties, we are looking at that to preserve that constitutional monarchy within Tonga."

Cabinet minister

On 28 January, Tupoutoʻa was appointed foreign minister and minister for His Majesty's Armed Forces to Prime Minister

ʻAisake Eke ʻAisake Valu Eke is a Tongan politician who has served as prime minister of Tonga since 22 January 2025. He also served in the Cabinet as Minister for Finance and National Planning from 2014 to 2017. Education Eke received a degree in economic ...

's cabinet. He was the only member of the nobility in the Eke Cabinet. Tupoutoʻa was concurrently appointed as a member of parliament by the prime minister along with three other cabinet ministers.

Issue

His firstborn child, a son, Prince Taufaʻahau Manumataongo, who is second in line to the throne, was born on 10 May 2013 at Auckland City Hospital. On 12 July 2014, the Crown Princess gave birth to a daughter, Princess Halaevalu Mataʻaho, at Auckland City Hospital. His third child and second daughter, Princess Nanasipauʻu Eliana, was born on 20 March 2018 at Auckland City Hospital. His fourth child and third daughter, Princess Salote Mafileʻo Pilolevu, was born on 25 February 2021 at Calvary Public Hospital Bruce in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

Honours

National

* : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Royal Order of Pouono * : Knight Grand Cross with Collar of the Order of Queen Salote Tupou III * : Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Tonga * : Recipient of the King Tupou VI Coronation Medal

Dynastic

* Royal House of Two Sicilies: Knight Grand Cross of the

Royal Order of Francis I The Royal Order of Francis I (properly 'The Royal Order of Francis I of the Two Sicilies' ) was an extinct order of merit of the former Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which was annexed in 1861 by the King of Italy (until 1860 King of Piedmont and S ...

Ancestry

Family tree

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tupoutoa Ulukalala 1985 births Living people Tongan royalty Crown princes Princes Australian National University alumni Sons of kings Children of prime ministers of Tonga Ministers of foreign affairs of Tonga Defence ministers of Tonga