Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha dies at 47 after three-year coma

Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha, the eldest child of King Vajiralongkorn, died Thursday evening in a Bangkok hospital. She was 47.

The princess had been in a coma since December 2022, when she collapsed while walking her dogs. The Royal Household Bureau said medics at Chulalongkorn Hospital provided the closest possible care. Her condition continued to decline.

Bajrakitiyabha was the only child from the king's first marriage, to Princess Soamsali. She held the rank of general and served as chief of staff in the Royal Security Command, which guards the king.

Among the king's seven children, she was believed to be second in line to the throne, behind her 21-year-old half-brother Prince Dipangkorn. Nothing was official at the time she fell ill.

A Cornell-trained lawyer with two graduate degrees, Bajrakitiyabha worked at Thailand's U.N. mission in New York and in the attorney-general's office in Bangkok. She served as ambassador to Austria from 2012 to 2014.

She became a vocal advocate for criminal justice reform, focusing on treatment of minor drug offenders and at-risk women. Thailand has some of the highest incarceration rates globally for both categories. Her work led to an appointment as the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Ambassador for the Rule of Law for Southeast Asia.

Before her illness, she had been tipped as the best candidate to succeed her father as queen, or potentially as regent alongside Prince Dipangkorn. Dipangkorn has been reported to be unsuited to the role.

King Vajiralongkorn divorced Bajrakitiyabha's mother in 1991. Princess Soamsali remains a key member of the royal family and retains her title. Dipangkorn's mother, Srirasmi Suwadee, had her royal title stripped amid corruption allegations against her family.

Thailand's strict lese majeste laws make public discussion of the succession a criminal offense.