There was a time when she owned the front pages of the world. “Vanity Fair” praised her as “Asia’s Jackie Kennedy,” “Bunte Illustrierte” praised her as the best-dressed woman on earth, and “Paris Match” praised her as the most beautiful queen ever. In the 1950s and 1960s – when royals like Kate, Letizia and Máxima were not even born yet – Thailand’s Queen Sirikit was considered the epitome of Asian grace and elegance.
- Also read: King Harald jokes about his daughter’s Netflix documentary
Now the woman who led her country as monarch for more than six and a half decades has died at the age of 93. She outlived her husband, King Bhumibol (died October 13, 2016), by almost exactly nine years. Thailand is now wearing black again – according to a statement from the court, the mourning period will last for a year.
Love story made in Thailand
The liaison between the two was one of the greatest love stories of the international nobility in the last century. At the beginning – she was 15, he was 19 – it didn’t look like that at all. “It was hatred at first sight,” Sirikit recalled many years later of the first meeting in Paris in 1947. “He wanted to come at four, but didn’t come until seven. He made me wait and practice the curtsey forever.” The next time they met it was supposed to be love.
Sirikit Kitiyakara came from a royal family himself. The grandfather was the twelfth son of a former king, the father was ambassador to France and Denmark. She was raised primarily in Europe. He studied in Switzerland. In October 1948, Bhumibol had a car accident there in which he lost an eye. Sirikit visited him regularly in the hospital. The wedding was celebrated in April 1950, and the official coronation followed a week later.
Despite living in Bangkok, the young royals were very fond of the European jet set: loyal visitors to the big balls, as well as the festivals in Salzburg and Bayreuth, and she was also one of the best customers of the luxury Parisian tailors.
The couple had four children, three daughters and a son, the current King Maha Vajiralongkorn, born in 1952. Then, at the end of the 1960s, they said goodbye to the high society lifestyle: Instead of Parisian haute couture, Sirikit now wore Thai silk. The two – themselves rich in billions – were committed to the development of their home country and to social projects. They earned great respect for this. In Thailand, with its many coups, they ensured something like stability.
“}”>
Image: – (APA/AFP/-)
Source: Nachrichten
