Thailand's Queen Mother Sirikit has died aged 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.
Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul initially cancelled his trip to the Asean leaders' summit in Malaysia, but later said he would attend to take part in a ceremony marking a ceasefire with Cambodia, which US President Donald Trump is expected to join. A one-year mourning period has been declared for members of the royal family and household.
Born in 1932, the year Thailand transitioned from absolute to constitutional monarchy, Sirikit was the daughter of the ambassador to France. She met her future husband, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in Paris while studying music and language. She later recalled: "It was hate at first sight... Then it was love." They became engaged in 1949 and married in Thailand a year later when she was 17.
Sirikit was credited with helping revitalise Thailand's silk industry through her collaboration with French couturier Pierre Balmain and support for traditional weaving. She frequently accompanied the king on visits to remote villages to promote rural development projects, and she briefly served as regent in 1956. Her birthday, 12 August, became Mother's Day and a national holiday in 1976.
Though the monarchy is officially above politics, Sirikit occasionally intervened. In 1998 she urged Thais to unite behind the then prime minister, Chuan Leekpai, dealing a blow to opposition plans for a no-confidence debate. She later became associated with the royalist People's Alliance for Democracy and attended the funeral of a protester in 2008, implying royal backing for the movement.
Sirikit had been out of the public eye since a stroke in 2012. Her husband, King Bhumibol, reigned for 70 years until his death in 2016, making him Thailand's longest-reigning monarch. Their son, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, succeeded him, and Sirikit's formal title became Queen Mother upon his coronation in 2019.
