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View all search resultsAni Yudhoyono, from daughter of Army general to first lady
Ani Yudhoyono was known as a passionate supporter of her husband's and sons' political endeavors.
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Former first lady Ani Yudhoyono visits a jewelry exhibition. (AFP/Adek Berry)
K
ristiani Herrawati met Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the early 1970s, when Yudhoyono was a military cadet and her father, Lieut. Gen. (ret) Sarwo Edhie Wibowo, the governor of the Military Academy (AKABRI).
Many say it was bold for Yudhoyono to have approached Ani, as she was fondly called. Ani said in a recent interview with Kompas TV senior journalist Rosiana Silalahi that it was love at first sight for her.
“To me, he looked different [compared] to most of my friends. He was tall and very charismatic. I thought to myself, this guy will do,” she said, smiling.
Amid a budding romantic relationship between the two, Ani had to leave Indonesia for South Korea in her third year of medical school at Indonesia’s Christian University in Jakarta, after her father was appointed Indonesian ambassador to South Korea. They got engaged before the family left the country.
Upon returning to Indonesia, she married Yudhoyono on July 30, 1976, fresh after he graduated at the top of his class and became a military officer.
In 2004, Yudhoyono won Indonesia’s first direct presidential election and became the country’s sixth president. Yudhoyono was reelected in a landslide victory in 2009.
