In 1970, Megawati's first husband Surindro Supjarso - with whom she had two sons - died when his Short SC.7 Skyvan crashed near Biak. After a brief marriage to an Egyptian diplomat, Megawati married Taufiq Kiemas and Maharani was born in 1973. After founding president Sukarno was overthrown by Suharto following the 30 September Movement of 1965, Kiemas spent several years in jail as a political prisoner, limiting the family's economic and social interactions.
Puan is married to businessman Hapsoro 'Happy' Sukmonohadi and they have two children. According to media reports, Puan and Happy were married one month before the reformation period that was ushered in by the resignation of Suharto in May 1998. At that time, Puan’s mother Megawati was the country’s leading opposition figure in a regime that did not tolerate critical opposition. Puan said she had difficulty finding a venue for the wedding because many building managers canceled her booking. The wedding was eventually held at Megawati’s house in Kebagusan in South Jakarta. Puan said no state officials were present.
Career
After the fall of Suharto in 1998, Puan became involved in politics as her mother was one of the main players in the national political scene. During the three-year Megawati presidency, she would often accompany her mother on domestic and foreign official visits, in addition to conducting social events by herself. In 2008, Megawati introduced Puan, then head of PDI-P's public and women's empowerment wing, as her successor during campaigning for the East Java 2008 gubernatorial elections in Ngawi. Following that, Maharani ran in the 2009 elections in Central Java's election district 5 and won 242,504 votes - the second highest of all parliamentary candidates in the nation. During her first term, she acted as head of the PDI-P faction since 2012, replacing Tjahjo Kumolo. She was assigned to the DPR's 6th commission, covering investment and SMEs. During this period, she argued against a fuel price hike policy in 2013. Later, she was briefly put up as a possible PDI-P presidential candidate for the 2014 elections and as a possible vice presidential candidate to Joko Widodo. In the legislative elections, she won 326,927 votes, once more scoring the second-most votes nationwide. Following Jokowi's election victory over Prabowo Subianto, she was appointed a cabinet minister amid criticism over her inexperience and her mother's political influence. Her replacement in parliament, Alfia Reziani, was only sworn in by 2016. She claimed success during her tenure, pointing at the rising HDI in addition to lower poverty and Gini ratio statistics. She was the only coordinating minister to survive two cabinet reshuffles in Jokowi's first term, prompting the media to describe her as "untouchable". Following Indonesia's April 2019 general election, in which provisional results indicated PDIP had received the most votes, Puan was touted to become Speaker of the House for the 2019-2024 period, becoming the first female Speaker of the body. She has also indicated she may run for the presidency in 2024. Individually, she obtained 404,034 votes for her ticket for the council, the most of any legislative candidates in the country. She was appointed as Speaker on 1 October 2019, becoming the first woman to hold the position.
Corruption allegation
On 22 March 2018, former House of Representatives speaker Setya Novanto, while on trial for corruption, testified Puan received a bribe of $500,000 from businessman Made Oka Masagung in connection with an electronic identity card program when she was a legislator, serving as chairwoman of the PDIP faction in the House of Representatives. Puan admitted to knowing Made Oka but denied discussing the e-ID case with him. Made Oka, who was jailed for 10 years for his role in the e-ID bribery scandal, denied giving any money to legislators, saying he could not remember a meeting with them. Indonesia Corruption Watch called on the Corruption Eradication Commission to check the veracity of the allegation made against Puan. KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said Setya's testimony was "only talk" and Puan would not be questioned if no evidence had been found.
Mental Revolution website
On 24 August 2016, in her capacity as Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture, Puan launched a website, , to promote President Joko Widodo's call for a "mental revolution" in Indonesia. The ministry had received budget funds of Rp149 billion in 2015, resulting in criticism when the revolusimental website went "down" two days after its launch. Officials claimed the site had been hacked and had cost "only" Rp200 million. Reports noted that some of the site's script code had been taken from barackobama.com, a site operated by supporters of Barack Obama. The original site was also built on a theme from open-source website platform WordPress and hosted on a shared server. The website was later redeveloped, but was criticized for being "heavy on budget, light on content". Puan defended the website, saying: “l really want everyone to participate in this programme by joining the activities as well as giving us their opinions or criticisms.”
