Rachmawati was born in Jakarta on 27 September 1949 to President Sukarno and his third wife Fatmawati and was the third child of this marriage.

[1] She had intended to become a doctor but when she enrolled at the University of Indonesia in 1969 she opted to study law, and did not complete her degree.

[6] She joined the Nasdem Party in 2012[7] and led its advisory board between 2013[8] and 2014, when she was removed due to her endorsement of Prabowo Subianto in the 2014 Indonesian presidential election.

[15] One of her children, Mahardika Suprapto, was elected to the People's Representative Council as a Nasdem Party member in 2014.

[4] Rachmawati died on 3 July 2021 at Jakarta's Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital, where she had been receiving treatment for COVID-19.