Jakarta. Yurike Sanger, the seventh wife of Indonesia’s founding president Sukarno, has died in California at the age of 80.

She passed away on Wednesday evening local time while receiving treatment at a hospital in San Bernardino, near Los Angeles. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Her death was announced on Instagram by her son from her second marriage, Yudhi Sanger.

"In loving memory, Yurike Sanger. Beloved mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother," Yudhi wrote. He added that her remains will be flown to Jakarta and laid in repose at Fatmawati Hospital before burial, though he did not specify the date.

Born in 1945 in Poso, Central Sulawesi, Yurike was of mixed German and Manado heritage. She met Sukarno in 1963 while still a high school student, serving as part of a welcoming team for visiting state guests.

The following year, at age 19, she married Sukarno, who was then 64 years old -- 45 years her senior. Their marriage lasted just four years and produced no children. Facing mounting opposition and the eventual collapse of his presidency, Sukarno divorced Yurike in 1968, reportedly to spare her from the pressures surrounding him.
 
After the amicable separation, Yurike remarried and later settled in the United States with her family.

Sukarno, revered as the nation’s founding father for proclaiming independence in 1945, was deposed in 1967 and died under house arrest in 1970. Known as a charismatic orator and a towering political figure, he was also famous for his complex personal life, marrying nine times.

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