Who’s the Princess Shaking Up Thai Politics?

Thailand’s first election since the army seized power in 2014 is already sure to be seismic: A member of the royal family, Princess Ubolratana, has entered the race to become prime minister, an unprecedented move in a country where senior royals are officially treated with semi-divine status. She was chosen by a party linked to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006. The leader of the last coup (and current prime minister) is also a candidate, meaning the March 24 vote will be interesting, to say the least.

The eldest child of former King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016 after 70 years on the throne, and sister of the current ruler, King Maha Vajiralongkorn. Her mother is Queen Sirikit. Born in 1951 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Ubolratana Rajakanya Sirivadhana Barnavadi was educated in the U.S., earning a Bachelor of Science degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. It was while studying at M.I.T. that she met her future husband, Peter Jensen, an American. She relinquished her royal title on July 25, 1972 when they married and lived in the U.S. for 26 years. When she returned to Thailand in 1998 after her divorce, the king bestowed on her a title that made her one of eight Thai princesses.