Princess Bajrakitiyabha dies at 47 after more than three years
Princess Bajrakitiyabha has died after more than three years in a coma, the royal household said, ending a long medical crisis that began when princess bajrakitiyabha collapsed in December 2022 while exercising her dogs. She was 47 and died at Chulalongkorn Hospital at 19:48 local time on the previous day, according to the palace.
Chulalongkorn Hospital
The palace said in a statement on Friday morning: "The medical team provided the closest and most intensive care possible, but her condition continued to decline progressively". Her doctors had attributed the collapse to a severely irregular heartbeat caused by a mycoplasma infection in her heart.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha was the eldest of King Vajiralongkorn's seven children and had built a public profile through legal work, diplomacy and advocacy for penal reform, with a particular focus on vulnerable women who end up in prison. She was born on 7 December 1978 to King Vajiralongkorn's first wife and cousin, Princess Soamsawali, trained as a lawyer and earned two post-graduate degrees from Cornell University in the US.
King Vajiralongkorn
Her career took her from a brief period at the Thai mission to the United Nations in New York to the Attorney-General's offices in Bangkok and elsewhere in Thailand. She later served as Thailand's ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014 and became the UNODC's Ambassador for the Rule of Law in South East Asia after returning to Thailand.
In 2021, King Vajiralongkorn made her a chief of staff in his private bodyguard and gave her the rank of general. That move had put her closer to the center of royal succession politics, even though the king has not yet named an heir.
Thailand's succession question
Thai custom says the heir should be male, but a 1974 amendment to the constitution allows a woman to take the throne. King Vajiralongkorn has five sons; four sons from his second marriage were disowned in 1996 and have lived with their mother in the US since then, leaving Dipangkorn as the presumed heir.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha had been seen by many royalists as the most promising figure to succeed her father or serve as regent. Her death leaves Thailand's succession question unanswered, and no new heir has been named.
