Thailand’s princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, a lawyer and the eldest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s youngsters, has died at 47, the Bureau of the Royal Family stated.
She died on Thursday (June 11, 2026) night at a Bangkok hospital the place she had been cared for since falling unconscious as a consequence of sickness three years in the past, based on the assertion issued on Friday (June 12, 2026).
“This loss is just not merely unhealthy information introduced to the individuals, however an immeasurable grief within the hearts of your entire nation,” Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul stated in a televised speech. He stated the princess was “a satisfaction of Thailand”, and that “her dedication to constructing a society of kindness, justice, and equality, will endlessly stay as an ethical legacy for the nation, a guiding mild for generations of Thais”.
A small group of mourners gathered in an atrium at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, the place the princess had been handled. Most held framed or laminated images of her all through the years.
Peoples maintain footage of Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol in Bangkok, Thailand on June 12, 2026
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AP
Pattamaporn Kaewkityakorn stated she had arrived on Thursday (June 11, 2026) and spent the evening there to point out her help for the princess, unaware that the announcement of her passing would come the next morning.
“I do know she was sick, however I wanted there have been a miracle,” she stated, her voice trembling. “I used to be saddened and shocked.” Bajrakitiyabha was lively in justice reform efforts and greatest identified for her Kamlangjai, or “Encourage,” challenge to assist rehabilitate incarcerated Thai ladies forward of their launch.
Bajrakitiyabha was hospitalised in December 2022 after falling unconscious whereas coaching canine for an Military exhibition. The palace stated she had a mycoplasma an infection, a bacterial an infection often related to pneumonia.
Her father’s New 12 months’s greeting card for 2023 confirmed King Maha Vajiralongkorn and Queen Suthida garbed in somber black, which many Thais noticed as affirmation of the gravity of her situation.
The princess was born on December 7, 1978, to Vajiralongkorn, who was the crown prince on the time, and his then-wife, Princess Soamsawali. Vajiralongkorn has seven youngsters by three of his 4 successive wives. Bajrakitiyabha was additionally identified by the royal identify Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, utilized in formal state settings.
Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti, the youngest of the king’s youngsters, is the presumptive inheritor as a result of sons take priority in Thailand’s line of succession. However Bajrakitiyabha’s expertise in public service raised hypothesis she was set to carry an essential function in any future succession, maybe as regent to a youthful monarch.
An individual holds an image of the late Thailand Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol in Bangkok, Thailand on June 12, 2026.
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AP
Bajrakitiyabha studied legislation at Thammasat College then went to Cornell College in New York state, the place she earned a grasp’s diploma in legislation in 2002. She earned a doctorate at Cornell in 2005 with a dissertation in regards to the safety of the rights of the accused. Scholarships to Cornell Regulation College and a programme for the change of authorized students between Thailand and Cornell have been later established in her identify.
After working briefly on the Thai Mission to the U.N. in New York Metropolis, she returned house and labored as a public prosecutor. She renewed her diplomatic profession with an appointment as Thailand’s Ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014 earlier than returning to her homeland to focus on felony justice points. In 2017 she was appointed a goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. Workplace on Medicine and Crime.
Along with working for the rehabilitation of feminine convicts, she was concerned in different tasks together with a marketing campaign to boost the residing circumstances of ladies prisoners and selling efforts to stem violence towards ladies as an honorary U.N. goodwill Ambassador for ladies. Her efforts led to the U.N. Common Meeting adopting the “Bangkok Guidelines” on care and circumstances for feminine prisoners.
“Society can’t develop if there may be instability and injustice,” Bajrakitiyabha stated in a 2013 interview with The Related Press.
“With out the rule of legislation, and not using a good justice system, it’s at all times chaos,” she stated. “I feel the rule of legislation is a vital pillar to growth, to financial development, and naturally to human rights.” Bajrakitiyabha is survived by her mother and father and siblings.
Printed – June 12, 2026 03:28 pm IST