Asma al-Assad, 49, was born in the UK to Syrian parents in 1975 and grew up in Acton, west London.

She moved to Syria in 2000 at the age of 25 and married her husband just months after he succeeded his father as president.

Throughout her 24 years as Syria’s first lady, Mrs Assad was a subject of curiosity in western media.

A controversial 2011 Vogue profile called her “a rose in the desert” and described her as “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies”. The article has since been removed from the Vogue website.

Just one month later, Mrs Assad was criticised for remaining silent while her husband violently repressed pro-democracy campaigners at the start of the Syrian civil war.

The conflict went on to claim the lives of around half a million people, with her husband accused of using chemical weapons against civilians.

In 2016, Mrs Assad told Russian state-backed television she had rejected a deal to offer her safe passage out of the war-torn nation in order to stand by her husband.

She announced she was being treated for breast cancer in 2018 and said she had made a full recovery one year later.

She was diagnosed with leukaemia and began treatment for the disease in May this year, the office of then-President Assad announced.

A statement said she would “temporarily withdraw” from public engagements.