Max now regrets that the brothers didn’t immediately seize that invitation, though he notes they were young and didn’t want to abandon their mother, who was still patently unwelcome. Over time, the brothers came to terms with their exile, different as it was from the pampering of the palace. Max tried to put Thailand out of his mind and immerse himself in American life. “At the time, all anybody could ever talk about was Thailand, Thailand, Thailand,” says Max. “I felt like it was holding us back. So I tried to go to school, get a job, move away from the family a little bit, and get my life going.”
For nearly three decades, that’s exactly what the family did. The brothers focused on school, worked casual jobs, and graduated college. As a young man, Vacharaesorn hawked hot dogs at sporting events and sold vacuums door-to-door.
In 2013, Max married an American woman, Riya Gough, and the couple have a son and two daughters. When not traveling for work, he plays pickleball, shops at Costco, and drives his kids to soccer practice in his custom BMW, which he sometimes races at the track. Thailand faded into the background.
