Thailand is mourning the death of Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, the king’s eldest daughter, who has died at 47, the royal palace said, more than three years after she was first hospitalised following a sudden illness.
The princess had been in hospital since December 2022, when she suddenly lost consciousness because of a heart condition while visiting Nakhon Ratchasima in the country’s northeast.
Bajrakitiyabha was airlifted by helicopter to Bangkok, where doctors began treating her.
She died yesterday evening after her condition deteriorated amid an intra-abdominal infection, colitis, low blood pressure, arrhythmias and blood clotting disorders, according to the palace statement.
Across Thailand, she is likely to be remembered as a high-profile royal figure whose public life spanned diplomacy, law and advocacy, especially her work aimed at improving conditions for female prisoners.
She studied law at Cornell University, where she earned both a Master’s degree and a Doctorate, before serving as an attorney in the Thai Office of the Attorney-General from 2006 to 2011.
Between 2012 and 2014, she represented Thailand abroad as ambassador to Austria, Slovenia and Slovakia, then returned to the attorney-general’s office in Bangkok.
Officials gather to pay their respects before a portrait of Princess Bajrakitiyabha after her hospitalisation
She also established a charity focused on the rights of female inmates, with particular attention to those who were pregnant while behind bars.
In 2017, the United Nations Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice appointed the princess as goodwill ambassador for the rule of law in Southeast Asia.
She transferred to the army in 2021, receiving the rank of general and taking up a role as chief of staff in the Royal Security Command.
The princess was one of King Vajiralongkorn’s three children with formal titles and remained eligible to succeed to the throne under the constitution.
In October last year, Thailand’s Queen Mother died at the age of 93.
The palace is to stage royal funeral rites, and the government is expected to announce a period of national mourning.
