Updated at 13.50

Queen Mother Sirikit, the mother of King Vajiralongkorn, has passed away at 93.

According to the Bureau of the Royal Household, she passed away peacefully at 21.21 on Friday (24 October).

The Queen Mother had suffered from serious illness and stayed at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital since 7 September 2019. At the time, the medical team discovered abnormalities in multiple systems. 

A bloodstream infection was also detected earlier this month. Despite the best medical care provided, her condition gradually deteriorated. She passed away peacefully at 93. 

King Vajiralongkorn has decreed a one-year mourning period for the Royal Family and Royal Court officials from the date of her passing (24 October 2025).

The Queen Mother was born into royalty as the daughter of a prince whose father was a Thai ambassador Nakkhatra Kittiyakara. She was born on 12 August 1932 following the 1932 Siamese Revolution. She met the late King Bhumibol, who  was her relative, when she was living in France. 

"It was hate at first sight," she said in a BBC documentary, noting that he had arrived late to their first meeting. "Then it was love." She married at the age of 18 on 18 April 1950 after the coronation ceremony on 5 May and became Queen.

Both went back to Switzerland to continue their studies, and returned to Bangkok in 1952. She frequently traveled with the late King to remote areas across Thailand. She has been widely revered by the Thai people for her development initiatives.

In the 1960s, she traveled around the world alongside the late King. Throughout the decade, the Queen mother drew international attention with her beauty and fashion sense, often appearing in glamorous silk gowns. 

She became the Queen Mother after her only son, the reigning King Vajiralongkorn, succeeded the late King Bhumibol after he passed away in 2016.

Practically, the monarchy is above politics, but the Thai monarchy, including thee Queen Mother, has, from time to time, seemed to take sides in politics.

The most prominent such incident in recent times took place in 2008 when the then Queen Sirikit presided over the cremation ceremony of a protester who had been killed by a police tear gas canister during a People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) yellow shirt protest against the pro-Thaksin government of the day. The PAD was calling on the King to use a constitutional prerogative to nominate a PM without any election. 

During the ceremony, the Queen allowed the family of the deceased and Sondhi Limthongkul, the PAD leader, to have conversations with her, a breach of normal royal protocol.

The Queen Mother suffered a stroke in 2012, after which she refrained from public appearances since.