She is gone. Thailand’s Princess Bajrakitiyabha has died at 47, ending a grim three-year coma that kept the kingdom suspended in political animation. The palace finally broke the silence on Friday morning, confirming she passed away at Chulalongkorn Hospital on Thursday evening. Her heart gave out back in December 2022. A sudden collapse while running her dogs, blamed on a nasty mycoplasma infection, started the long, quiet end.
She was the smart one. In a family not exactly famous for intellectual rigor, Bajrakitiyabha stood out. She was the eldest child of King Vajiralongkorn, born to his first wife and cousin, Princess Soamsawali. She didn’t just collect titles; she actually worked. Armed with two law degrees from Cornell, she did stints at the UN in New York before grinding away in the Thai Attorney-General’s office. Later, she served as ambassador to Austria. There, she focused on the grim reality of Thailand’s prisons, pushing for reform in a system that locks up women at staggering rates for minor drug offenses.
Her father noticed. In 2021, he made her a general in his personal bodyguard unit. She was tough, a fitness fanatic who ran long distances. But none of that mattered when her heart misfired.
Now, the palace faces a mess. King Vajiralongkorn is 73. He has no named heir. By law, a woman can rule, though tradition favors men. The king’s family tree is complicated, to put it mildly. He has five sons. Four were cast out in 1996 and live in American exile. The fifth, Prince Dipangkorn, is the default choice, but whispers about his capacity to rule have long circulated in Bangkok’s quietest corners.
Bajrakitiyabha was the safety net. Royalists saw her as the competent hand, either as the reigning queen or the power behind Dipangkorn’s throne. That hope is dead. And because of Thailand’s brutal lese-majeste laws, which carry decades of prison time for criticizing the crown, nobody in the country is allowed to talk about the looming crisis. Silence reigns.
