Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit has died at the age of 93, the Thai Royal Household bureau announced. She had been hospitalised since 2019 due to several illnesses and developed a bloodstream infection on 17 October before passing away late on Friday. A mourning period of one year has been declared for members of the royal family and household.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul initially cancelled his trip to the Asean leaders' summit in Malaysia because of the Queen Mother's death, but later said he would make the trip to take part in a ceremony marking a ceasefire with Cambodia that US President Donald Trump is expected to attend.
Sirikit had been out of the public eye since a stroke in 2012. Her husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was Thailand's longest-reigning monarch, with 70 years on the throne since 1946. For many Thais, she will be remembered for her charitable work and as a symbol of maternal virtue.
Born in 1932, Sirikit Kitiyakara was the daughter of Thailand's ambassador to France. While studying in Paris she met Bhumibol, and they married in 1950 when she was 17. She collaborated with French couturier Pierre Balmain on outfits made from Thai silk and is credited with helping revitalise Thailand's silk industry.
She was briefly regent in 1956 and her birthday, 12 August, became Mother's Day and a national holiday in Thailand in 1976. Her only son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, succeeded Bhumibol after his death in 2016, and upon his coronation in 2019, Sirikit's formal title became Queen Mother.
Officially, the monarchy is above politics in Thailand, but Sirikit occasionally intervened. In 1998, she used her birthday address to urge unity behind the then prime minister, and later became associated with the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy, whose protests brought down governments.
