Norodom Monineath Sihanouk is the Queen Mother of Cambodia. She was Queen of Cambodia from 1993 to 2004, as the wife of King Norodom Sihanouk. She is the widow of King-Father Norodom Sihanouk, whom she married in 1955 as the "secondary consort". After Sihanouk and Norleak divorced in 1968, Monineath became the official spouse of the King.
Queen Monineath in 2013
Norodom Sihanouk was a Cambodian politician, film director, and composer who led Cambodia in various capacities throughout his long career, most often as both King and Prime Minister of Cambodia. In Cambodia, he is known as Samdech Euv. During his lifetime, Cambodia was under various regimes, from French colonial rule, a Japanese puppet state (1945), an independent kingdom (1953–1970), a military republic (1970–1975), the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), a Vietnamese-backed communist regime (1979–1989), a transitional communist regime (1989–1993) to eventually another kingdom.
Sihanouk in 1983
Sihanouk in his coronation regalia, November 1941
Sihanouk in 1946
Meeting in Beijing in 1965: (from left) Mao Zedong, Peng Zhen, Sihanouk, Liu Shaoqi