Thailand’s Queen Mother Sirikit died at the age of 93 in a Bangkok hospital late on Friday, the Royal Household Bureau announced.
Since October 17, the former queen of Thailand had been suffering from a blood infection.
She had been largely absent from public life in recent years due to declining health. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, died in October 2016.
They married on April 28, 1950, a week before his coronation on May 5.
His coronation was held off for four years because he returned to Switzerland to complete his university studies.
He actually became king in 1946 after the previous incumbent, his 20-year-old brother, King Ananda Mahidol, died after a gunshot wound in circumstances that remain unclear to this day.
Who was Queen Sirikit?
Born in Bangkok on August 12, 1932, as Thailand transitioned from absolute to constitutional monarchy, Sirikit Kitiyakara was the daughter of a diplomat who was a minor royal himself.
She met future King Bhumibol Adulyadej, her distant cousin, in Paris while her father served as Thai ambassador to France.
The pair married after a courtship that began as he recovered from a car crash which cost him the sight of one eye.
She was just 17 when they wed, beginning a marriage that would span almost seven decades.
Together they had four children, including their only son, King Vajiralongkorn.
Thailand’s National Mother’s Day is celebrated on August 12, a public holiday that coincides with the birthday of Sirikit, the Queen Mother.
The day honors the Queen as the “Mother of the Thai Nation” and also serves as a day to celebrate and show appreciation for mothers across the country.
Edited by: Roshni Majumdar
