Milka Mesić

Milka Mesić (; September 1939 – 22 October 2024) was a Croatian socialite who was the wife of Stjepan Mesić, the former president of Croatia (2000–2010), Speaker of the Croatian Parliament (1992–1994), President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia, President of the Executive Council of SR Croatia (1990) and Mayor of Orahovica.

Biography Milka Dudunić was born in September 1939 in Slabinja, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now Croatia), near the modern-day border of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

She met her future husband, Stjepan Mesić, after he had seen her in the jury of a dance competition in Zagreb and had asked his friend to introduce him to her because his friend's girlfriend was Milka's college roommate. The couple married in 1961 after Stjepan had earned a college degree and their first daughter, Saša, was born soon afterwards. Milka had been studying psychology at the University of Zagreb, but abandoned her studies after the birth of her first daughter and her husband's graduation. The couple moved from Zagreb to Stjepan's native town of Orahovica and Milka gave birth to their second daughter Dunja in 1963.

Personal life and death In 1961, she married future Croatian president Stjepan Mesić, who also held a number of other high-ranking political offices in Yugoslavia and Croatia, as well as local-level political offices and a judgeship in his home town of Orahovica. They had two daughters: Saša (born 1961) and Dunja (born 1963).

On 22 October 2024, it was announced that Mesić had died at the age of 85.