June 12, 2026 / 2:24 AM EDT
/ CBS/AP
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Bangkok — Thailand's Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, a lawyer and the eldest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's children, has died at 47, the Bureau of the Royal Household said.She died Thursday evening at a Bangkok hospital where she had been cared for since falling unconscious due to illness three years ago, according to the statement issued Friday. "This loss is not merely bad news announced to the people, but an immeasurable grief in the hearts of the entire nation," Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said in a televised speech. He said the princess was "a pride of Thailand," and that "her commitment to building a society of kindness, justice, and equality, will forever remain as a moral legacy for the nation, a guiding light for generations of Thais."She will lie in state at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and her funeral will be held "with the highest honors according to royal tradition," the bureau's statement added, according to French news agency AFP.The bureau said in May that her condition had deteriorated and medical devices and medications were supporting her lung and kidney functions, AFP reported.A small group of mourners gathered in an atrium at King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, where the princess had been treated. Most held framed or laminated photos of her throughout the years.
