Queen Sirikit, mother of King Vajiralongkorn of Thailand, died on the evening of Friday, October 24, aged 93, the Royal Household Office announced.
The Queen Mother died “peacefully” in a Bangkok hospital at 9:21 pm local time (3:21 pm in Lisbon) on Friday, according to a statement. Sirikit, who had been hospitalized since 2019, suffered a blood infection this month, the same source added.
For more than six decades, Queen Sirikit was married to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 and was Thailand’s longest-reigning monarch.
The Queen’s public appearances have become rare since 2012, when she suffered a stroke.
King Vajiralongkorn issued “a royal order that the Royal Household Office organize the royal funeral with the highest honors in accordance with royal tradition” and that the Queen Mother’s body rest in the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Room of the Grand Palace.
Sirikit’s birthday, August 12, is celebrated across the country as Mother’s Day. On this occasion, government buildings, offices, shopping centers and apartments across the country hang portraits in honor of the sovereign.
Sirikit became world famous for her permanent smile and glamorous image, wearing Thai silk dresses.
In Thailand, the queen committed to supporting several royal foundations and paramilitary organizations that, during the Cold War, defended the monarchy against the threat of communism, according to the Efe news agency.
Born in 1932 into an aristocratic family, she studied in Bangkok until she was 14, when she left for Europe, where her father, Prince Nakkhatra, was appointed ambassador to several countries.
Sirikit met Bhumibol in Paris and the two became closer when the young woman began to visit him regularly during his convalescence in a hospital in Lausanne, following a road accident. They married on April 28, 1950 in Thailand, seven days after Bhumibol’s coronation.
Together they had four children: Vajiralongkorn, who was born in 1952 and ascended to the throne in 2016, and the princesses Ubolratana, Sirindhorn and Chulabhorn, born respectively in 1951, 1955 and 1957.
The President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, sent a message of “heartfelt condolences” to the King of Thailand, in which he highlighted that the Queen Mother of Thailand “will be remembered for her dedication to multiple social solidarity initiatives, also remembering with appreciation and recognition the visit she made to Portugal in 1960”.
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