Khieu Ponnary

Khieu Ponnary (, 3 February 1920 – 1 July 2003) was the first wife of Pol Pot and served as Spouse of the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea. She was also the sister of Khieu Thirith and sister-in-law to Ieng Sary.

Biography Khieu Ponnary was born on 3 February 1920 in Battambang province, and her sister, Khieu Thirith, was born about 12 years later. Their father, a Cambodian judge, abandoned the family during World War II, running off to Battambang with a Cambodian princess. As a member of a privileged family, she was educated at the Lycée Sisowath. Her younger sister, Khieu Thirith, and their future husbands, Ieng Sary and Saloth Sar (later Pol Pot) also attended. Graduating from the Lycee in 1940, she became the first Cambodian woman to receive a baccalaureate degree.

In 1949, she left Cambodia with her younger sister (who was engaged to Ieng Sary) for Paris where she studied Khmer linguistics. Ponnary returned to Lycee Sisowath as a teacher, while her husband taught at Chamraon Vichea, a new private college.

By at least 1975, Ponnary was growing increasingly disturbed from the onset of chronic schizophrenia. She became extremely paranoid and was convinced that the Vietnamese were trying to assassinate her and her husband. Pol Pot divorced her in 1979 after the Vietnamese invasion and took a second wife.

In 1996, Ponnary, together with her sister and brother-in-law, were granted amnesty from prosecution by the Cambodian government. Ponnary was cared for by her sister and her sister's husband Ieng Sary. The latter said:

She died in Pailin on July 1, 2003, aged 83.