Siti Hasmah, wife of Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, dies at 100

Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, the wife of Malaysia's longest-serving prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, has died at the age of 100, the veteran leader's office said on Monday.

She died at the National Heart Institute, the state news agency Bernama reported, citing the couple's son, Mokhzani Mahathir. No further details were immediately available.

Mahathir, now 101, served two terms as premier spanning more than two decades and is widely credited with modernising Malaysia. During his first tenure from 1981 to 2003, he presided over a period of rapid industrial growth that transformed the country into one of Southeast Asia's economic tigers.

He returned to the top job in 2018, becoming the country's oldest prime minister after coming out of retirement to unseat the then-leader Najib Razak, who was embroiled in the multibillion-dollar 1MDB financial scandal. That second stint ended in less than two years when his coalition collapsed in 2020 amid political infighting.

Mahathir and Siti Hasmah met while both were studying medicine in Singapore in the late 1940s. The couple marked 70 years of marriage in August and raised seven children, among them businessman Mokhzani, social activist Marina Mahathir and politician Mukhriz Mahathir.

A popular figure in her own right, Siti Hasmah was known for an unassuming personality and good humour that contrasted with her husband's blunt and acerbic style. As a political spouse, she championed public health, family planning and other social causes.

Mahathir once described her as the backbone of his success, saying he admired her determination to earn a university degree at a time when it was a rarity among ethnic Malay women. "That, I think, reflects her strength of character," he told CNN in 2018.