Princess dies after three years in hospital, palace confirms

The royal palace of Thailand has announced that Princess Bajrakitiyabha Mahidol, the king's eldest daughter, has died aged 47 after prolonged illness.

The royal palace announced on Friday, the Princess has died more than three years after she was hospitalised following a sudden illness.

She was suffering from an abdominal infection and "her condition continued to worsen" until she "passed away peacefully" on Thursday evening, the Bureau of the Royal Household said in a statement.

The late princess will lie in state at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and her funeral will be held "with the highest honours according to royal tradition", it said.

According to AFP, known in Thailand as "Princess Bha", the only child from King Maha Vajiralongkorn's first marriage had been in hospital since falling ill suddenly in December 2022.

The Bureau of the Royal Household said in May that her condition had deteriorated and she was relying on medical devices to support her lung and kidney functions, as well as medication.

Bajrakitiyabha was the only child of King Vajiralongkorn´s marriage to Princess Soamsawali.

A trained prosecutor and diplomat, Bajrakitiyabha was educated in Britain, Thailand and the United States, earning a law degree from Cornell University and serving for a time as Thailand´s ambassador to Austria.

The princess told a campus audience about her professional background during a 2012 visit to the US law school. "I ask myself now, what am I exactly? A prosecutor? A criminal lawyer? A diplomat? The answer is everything all together. I say I am a hybrid," she said, according to the Cornell Chronicle.