Thailand’s former queen Sirikit dies aged 93

Queen Sirikit, the mother of Thailand’s King Vajiralongkorn, has died aged 93.

She passed away “peacefully” in a Bangkok hospital at 21:21 local time (14:21 GMT) on Friday night, according to the Thai Royal Household Bureau.

Sirikit had “suffered several illnesses” while in hospital since 2019, including a blood infection this month, it added.

For more than six decades, Queen Sirikit was married to Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016.

Queen Sirikit suffered a stroke in 2012, after which she was rarely seen in public.

She met her future husband while studying music in Paris, where her father was stationed as Thai ambassador to France.

The couple married on 28 April 1950, just a week before King Bhumibol was crowned in Bangkok.

As a young couple in the 1960s, Queen Sirikit and King Bhumibol travelled around the world, meeting US presidents Dwight Eisenhower, the late Queen Elizabeth II – as well as Elvis Presley.

During that decade, she frequently made international best dressed lists.

In 1980, Queen Sirikit featured in a BBC documentary about the Thai monarchy, called Soul of a Nation.

In the rare interview, she said: “Kings and queens of Thailand have always been in close contact with the people and they usually regard the king as the father of the nation.

“That is why we do not have much private life, because we are considered father and mother of the nation.”

She was seen as a key maternal figure for the country, with her birthday marked as Mother’s Day.