Prince Carl Philip and Sofia Hellqvist to marry next summer

Last evening the Swedish royal court announced the engagement of Prince Carl Philip to his longtime girlfriend Sofia Hellqvist. The wedding will take place next summer, but there has not yet been time to make any decisions about the date or the place, what title(s) she will receive or where they will live.
At 5 p.m. the Prince and his fiancée met the press in the small garden of the Royal Palace in Stockholm, where they revealed that the Prince had taken her by surprise by going down on one knee at their country house in the morning. Praising each other’s qualities they spoke about the immediate attraction they felt upon their first meeting. Sofia Hellqvist seemed very at ease with the press and it was noticeable that Prince Carl Philip also appeared more assured and relaxed with the press than usual.
The daughter of Erik Hellqvist and Marie Rothmann, Sofia Kristina Hellqvist was born on 6 December 1984 in Täby, just north of Stockholm. At the age of five or six she moved north to Älvdalen, where she grew up.
After finishing school at the age of eighteen she moved to Stockholm, where she worked as a waitress and glamour model, sometimes posing nude, but mostly in bikinis. Having posed for the lads’ mag Slitz in 2004, she was voted “Miss Slitz” and went on to take part in the reality show “Paradise Hotel”, where scantily clad twenty-somethings pass the time in a tropical resort with partying, intrigues and romancing (no, she was not among the participants having sex on television).
Sofia Hellqvist gradually seems to have made a break with her past after she moved to New York, where she trained to become a certified yoga instructor and attended the New York Institute of English and Business.
In 2009 she did volunteer work at an orphanage and women’s centre in Ghana and in 2010 she and a friend founded Project Playground, an organisation which provides aid to less fortunate children and youngsters in South Africa.
In January 2010 the media revealed that Prince Carl Philip was in a relationship with Sofia Hellqvist and they soon moved in together. In recent years they have shared an apartment in one of the many houses owned by the King at Djurgården in Stockholm.
A Prince marrying a former bikini model may seem like a scandal to some, but it seems it is not considered as such in Sweden, except by dedicated royalists. This is probably partly due to the fact that the Swedes have had several years to get used to the idea as Sofia Hellqvist has gradually become a regular presence and royal events, and partly due to the Swedes’ not taking the royal family as seriously, if it can be put that way, as for instance their Norwegian neighbours do. In Sweden, which has had its own king since 1523 and which remained at peace throughout both world war, the royal family seem to be taken more for granted and the fact that the monarchy was deprived of its constitutional functions forty years ago may also have contributed to how many ordinary Swedes seem to view the royal family primarily as the country’s most famous celebrities, which makes Sofia Hellqvist an interesting addition to the cast.
And it should not be forgotten that more than one royal bride who have been deemed “unsuitable” have eventually turned out to be an asset to the royal family. There was much opposition in 2000-2001 against Crown Prince Haakon of Norway’s choice of Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, but after the wedding that was quickly forgotten and Crown Princess Mette-Marit is today fully accepted as a member of the royal family (except by some republicans, the haters who thrive in online discussion groups, the Swedish media and some people more royalist than the King) and widely respected for the often innovative ways she uses her role to try and make a difference rather than just cutting ribbons. Another example could be Princess Lilian of Sweden, whose background as a divorced former model, actress and nightclub hostess made her completely unacceptable as a bride for Prince Bertil in the 1940s, but who, after their eventual marriage in 1976, proved to be the perfect princess.
There is no talk in Sweden about Prince Carl Philip having to renounce his title or succession rights because of this marriage; indeed, as both King Carl Gustaf and the government have given their consent today he will retain both.
It remains to be seen what title his wife will receive. As she is heir apparent, Crown Princess Victoria’s husband obviously became a Royal Highness, Prince of Sweden and Duke of Westrogothia, but the spouses of the King’s younger children are in a different position. When Princess Madeleine became engaged to Jonas Bergström in 2009 it was announced that he would become Duke of Helsingia and Gastricia (her dukedom), but not a Prince of Sweden. However, upon her marriage to Christopher O’Neill last year it was stated that his not becoming a Swedish citizen and his business interests meant that it would not be appropriate for him to become either a prince or a duke, which seems to suggest that the King since 2009 may have changed his mind about the princely title, which was also extended to Princess Madeleine’s and Chris O’Neill’s daughter Leonore earlier this year. Thus it seems certain that Sofia Hellqvist will at least become Duchess of Wermlandia (her fiancé’s dukedom) and very possibly also a Princess of Sweden, and that the children they may have will also receive princely titles and dukedoms.

Prince Amedeo of Belgium to marry

The Belgian royal court yesterday announced the engagement of Prince Amedeo to his longtime girlfriend Elisabetta Maria Rosboch von Wolkenstein, known as Lili.
Prince Amedeo, a businessman who is also Archduke of Austria-Este, was born on 21 February 1986 and is the eldest son of Princess Astrid and Prince Lorenz of Belgium. He is thus a nephew of King Philippe and the eldest grandchild of former King Albert II. He is currently sixth in line of succession to the Belgian throne.
Elisabetta Rosboch von Wolkenstein was born in Rome on 9 September 1987 and is the only child of Ettore Rosboch von Wolkenstein and Countess Lilia de Smecchia. The Princess-to-be holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature and film from Queen Mary University in London and works as a journalist covering the arts for the American news organisation Bloomberg, using the name Lili Rosboch.
Her father is apparently an illegitimate son of an Italian aristocrat, Filippo Caracciolo, 9th Prince of Castagneto and 3rd Duke of Melito. The name Rosboch von Wolkenstein seems to be a combination of the surname of his mother’s husband and his maternal grandmother, Countess Maria von Wolkenstein.

Prince Félix of Luxembourg set to marry

The grand ducal court of Luxembourg today announced the engagement of Prince Félix, the second son of Grand Duke Henri and Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, to his German girlfriend Claire Lademacher.
The future Princess was born in Filderstadt in Germany on 21 March 1985 and was educated in Germany, the USA, Switzerland, France and Italy. She holds as master degree in bioethics (the same degree as Prince Félix is currently studying for) and has earlier worked for Condé Nast in New York and Munich, for IMG World in Berlin and for the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics and Human Rights, according to the Luxembourgian court. She is currently working on a PhD on the topic of organ donation ethics.
Speculation about an upcoming engagement intensified after the wedding of Prince Félix’s elder brother, Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume, to Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy in October. No date has yet been announced for the wedding. The third brother, Prince Louis, married Tessy Antony in 2006, while the two youngest siblings, Princess Alexandra and Prince Sébastien, are unmarried.

Princess Madeleine engaged to Christopher O’Neill

After much recent media speculation the Swedish royal court today confirmed that Princess Madeleine is engaged to her Anglo-American boyfriend Christopher “Chris” O’Neill. The couple became engaged in early October, and King Carl Gustaf and the government have consented to the union.
The couple live in New York, but says in an interview with the royal website that the wedding will take place in Sweden in the summer of 2013. For the forseeable future they expect to live in the USA.
The court has so far not said anything about what title if any Christopher O’Neill will have after the wedding, but I suppose one will make the same decision as when Princess Madeleine became engaged to Jonas Bergström in 2009, an engagement which was called off in the wake of a kiss and tell interview given by a Norwegian girl with whom Bergström had had a one night stand. Back then it was decided that Bergström would retain his surname, become Duke of Helsinga and Gastricia (which is Princess Madeleine’s dukedom), but not become a Prince of Sweden or a Royal Highness.
The court has, however, confirmed that Princess Madeleine will retain her current titles, i.e. not become “Princess Madeleine, Mrs O’Neill”, as was the case with her aunts.
According to the Swedish court, Christopher O’Neill has joint British and American citizenship (and will not apply for Swedish citizenship) and was born in London on 27 June 1974. He is the only mutual child of Eva Maria and Paul O’Neill (the latter died in 2004), but has five half-sisters. He was educated in Switzerland and the USA and has a bachelor degree in international relations from Boston University and a master degree in business administration from Columbia Business School in New York. He has built a career as a businessman and is currently partner and head of research at Noster Capital.
Christopher O’Neill is a Catholic, but this has no consequences for his future wife’s rights to the Swedish throne, although it means that she will lose her (very remote) place in the order of succession to the British throne (unless her fiancé converts before the wedding). The photo, taken in New York three days ago, is copyright of Patrick Demarchelier/Kungahuset.se.

Princess Christina’s eldest son engaged to model

Svensk Damtidning reports that Gustaf Magnuson, the 37-year-old eldest son of Princess Christina of Sweden and Tord Magnuson, was engaged to Vicky Andrén on 22 July. Vicky Elisabeth Andrén was born on 25 January 1983 and has worked as a rather successful model since her early teens. While still in her teens she started dating the American nightclub owner Mark Baker, twenty years her senior, whom she married on 31 July 2005. They separated in January 2007 and were subsequently divorced.

Engagement of Hereditary Grand Duke of Luxembourg

The grand ducal court of Luxembourg has announced the engagement of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume to Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy. Apparently the official engagement will take place at Berg Castle tomorrow, and according to Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker the wedding will take place already this year.
Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy, who is a citizen of Belgium, is the youngest of eight children of Count Philippe de Lannoy (born 1922) and Alix della Faille de Leverghem (born 1941). She was born in Ronse on 18 February 1984. Her paternal grandmother was Princess Béatrice of Ligne, whose nephew Antoine married Princess Alix of Luxembourg, who is a great-aunt of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume.
The Countess, who lives in Brussels, was educated at schools in Belgium and France and at universities in Louvain and Berlin.

Edward Bernadotte to wed in May

The latest issue of Svensk Damtidning reports that Count Edward Bernadotte af Wisborg is set to marry his Italian fiancée of two years, Nathalie Frediani, at Villa Rusconi-Clerici in Verbania by the Lake Maggiore, Italy, on 29 May.
The great-great-grandson of King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway, Count Edward Gustaf Bernadotte af Wisborg is born on 18 April 1984. He is the youngest son of Count Bertil Bernadotte and his second wife, the artist Jill Bernadotte, née Rhodes-Maddox. His father is the youngest son of the famous Count Folke Bernadotte af Wisborg, who was himself the youngest son of Oscar II’s second son, Prince Oscar Bernadotte, who in 1888 forfeited his rights to the Swedish and Norwegian thrones when he married his sister-in-law’s former lady-in-waiting, Ebba Munck af Fulkila.

Princess Christina’s son engaged to Emma Ledent

In Svenska Dagbladet today one may read the announcement of the engagement of the designer Oscar Magnuson to Emma Ledent, an event which took place in Gattières, France on 11 February.
Tord Oscar Fredrik Magnuson, born on 20 June 1977, is the second of the three sons of Princess Christina (the youngest of King Carl Gustaf’s four elder sisters) and Tord Magnuson. Like his mother he has no succession rights to the Swedish throne.
Emma Emelie Charlotta Ledent is born on 18 April 1981.

Prussian “heir” engaged to Isenburg princess

Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, the head of the former royal family of Prussia (which also held the rank as German emperors from 1871 till 1918), yesterday announced (external link) his engagement to Princess Sophie of Isenburg.
Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, who lost his father when he was one year old, succeeded his grandfather Prince Louis Ferdinand (himself a grandson of the last German Emperor and King of Prussia) as head of the former royal house in 1994. His father was the third son of Prince Louis Ferdinand, but his elder brothers Friedrich Wilhelm and Michael were deemed to have forfeited their rights of succession by marrying unequally.
The princes Friedrich Wilhelm and Michael later filed an eventually unsuccesful lawsuit claiming that it was discriminatory and unconstitutional to bypass them. This means that Prince Georg Friedrich has been under a certain pressure to choose a spouse who could be considered his equal in royal status.
Although belonging to one of the lesser princely families of Germany, his fiancée meets these criteria as she is the daughter of the Prince (Fürst) of Isenburg, Franz Alexander, and his wife Christine, née Countess von Saurma and Baroness von und zu der Jeltsch.
The bride-to-be has two brothers - Alexander and Viktor - who are both unmarried, and two sisters - Katharina and Isabelle - who are married to Archduke Martin of Austria-Este and Carl, the Prince of Wied, respectively
The wedding is expected to take place in Potsdam before the end of this year. Potsdam, which is geographically next door to Berlin, is the capital of the state of Brandenburg. It was in Potsdam that the kings of Prussia had most of their palaces and the City Palace, which was destroyed during World War II, is currently being rebuilt to house the state parliament. Opposite it is the Church of St Nikolai, which might be an excellent setting for such a wedding.

Princess Anne’s daughter engaged

Buckingham Palace has just announced the engagement of Princess Anne’s daughter Zara Phillips to Mike Tindall. Although not herself a royal, Zara Phillips is twelth in line of succession to the British throne. She is also a physiotherapist and an equestrienne. Mike Tindall is a rugby player.

Prince William and Kate Middleton engaged

The Prince of Wales has just announced the engagement of Prince William to Catherine “Kate” Elizabeth Middleton. According to Clarence House the wedding will take place in London in the summer of 2011. The couple became engaged during a private holiday in Kenya in October. Following their wedding they will live in North Wales, where Prince William will serve with the RAF.

An engagement among the Bernadottes af Wisborg

I am catching up with the weekend’s newspapers and notice in Svenska Dagbladet from Sunday (which by the way had a long feature article about the importance of royal visits abroad to Swedish business) an annoucement of the engagement of Josephine Bernadotte af Wisborg and Mikael Salenstedt, which took place at Malta on 9 October.
Countess Josephine Eva Bernadotte af Wisborg was born on 5 January 1984 and is the eldest daughter of Count Carl and Countess Charlotte Bernadotte af Wisborg, who live at Frötuna Manor outside Norrtälje (close to Uppsala).
Josephine Bernadotte af Wisborg’s grandfather, Count Oscar Bernadotte af Wisborg, who is now 89, inherited Frötuna as an entail through his mother, née Baroness Marianne de Geer af Leufsta, who later married Marcus Wallenberg, head of the powerful financial dynasty.
Count Oscar’s father Carl was an elder brother of the famous Folke Bernadotte and the eldest son of Prince Oscar Bernadotte, the second son of King Oscar II, who gave up his rights to the thrones of Sweden and Norway to marry the former lady-in-waiting Ebba Munck af Fulkila in 1888.
Josephine Bernadotte af Wisborg is thus the fourth cousin of Crown Princess Victoria, but, with the exception of her great-aunt Dagmar von Arbin, the family has little contact with the royals.
Josephine herself graduated with a MSc from Stockholm School of Economics in 2008, which also involved studies in management at ESADE Business School in Barcelona and the University of Californa. She was subsequently chosen to take part in Ericsson Female Talent Graduate Program and worked at Ericsson’s internal management consultancy unit.
She is now an associate working with analytics at the company Rite Ventures. Her fiancé is business development manager at Ramirent.

Prince Albert II engaged to Charlene Wittstock

The princely palace in Monaco has today announced the engagement of Sovereign Prince Albert II to Charlene Wittstock, a South African former swimmer and teacher. No date for the wedding was announced.
The future princess of Monaco, Charlene Lynette Wittstock, was born in Bulawayo in Zimbabwe on 25 January 1978. Prince Albert and Charlene Wittstock was first seen together in 2006 and she has recently accompanied him to a number of official events, including the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel in Stockholm on Saturday.

Princess Madeleine will not marry Jonas Bergström

The court of Stockholm (external link) today announced that Princess Madeleine and her fiancé Jonas Bergström have mutually agreed to go separate ways. Bergström proposed to the Princess on 12 June 2009 and the engagement was announced on 11 August.
The cancellation of the engagement comes after weeks of speculation. At the time of their engagement it was said that the wedding would take place towards the end of 2010 or in early 2011, but as months went by and no date was set the media began to speculate if everything was all right in the relationship. It was claimed that the relationship had been virtually at an end after Bergström had made a trip to the ski resort Åre without the Princess in April last year and that the relationship was only saved by his surprising proposal at Capri in the early summer.
Amid the speculations Queen Silvia remarked on 12 April that there would “unfortunately” not be any wedding this year, while adding the next day that she was not in a position to know if there were difficulties in the relationship.
A week ago it was noticeable how the Swedish media began to turn against Jonas Bergström, who they had earlier been quite in love with, and published reports on his “double life” and partying.
On Tuesday the Norwegian weekly Se og Hør published an interview with a 21-year-old Norwegian who claimed to have slept with Jonas Bergström during the said trip to Åre last year, a story which was splashed all over the Swedish tabloids on Wednesday. The fact that this girl claimed Bergström had introduced himself to her as Jacob Bergström caused a wonderful remark from Daniel Nyhlén at Svensk Damtidning (external link), who wrote that if this story were true, he might as well have called himself Jacob Anckarström (the man who shot Gustaf III).
With the Swedish media speculating that the relationship was in fact over, the royal court went to the unprecedented step of issuing an announcement saying that Princess Madeleine and Jonas Bergström were still a couple but that they now needed some peace (a statement which has now discreetly been removed from their website).
The latter phrase was a clear indication that things might be about to change and this afternoon it was formally announced that the Princess and Mr Bergström have ended their engagement. Princess Madeleine has left for the USA, where she will be working with the World Childhood Foundation for some weeks, and the court made it clear that no further comments will be forth-coming. The King of Norway has however made a brief comment (external link) that it seems better to end it now than after the wedding, which I guess most can agree with.
To my knowledge the last engagement within a reigning royal family to be broken off was that of Princess Stéphanie of Monaco and Jean-Yves LeFur in 1990, while in Scandinavia we will have to go as far back as 1922, when the engagement between Crown Prince Frederik (IX) of Denmark and Princess Olga of Greece came to an end after a few months.
Princess Madeleine and Jonas Bergström, a jurist by profession, had been together for eight years. Bergström has until now been quite a favourite with the Swedish media, which has praised his upper-class background, proper job, good looks, polite manners, discretion, loyalty etc. etc., thereby implicitly contrasting him with the “less suitable” Daniel Westling. Obviously there was not much loyalty or discretion to talk about and because of how he has embarrassed the Swedish royal family Jonas Bergström is likely to be remembered as the dream-prince who turned out to be a frog.
(The official engagement photo is by courtesy of the Swedish Royal Court).

Princess Madeleine will not marry this year

Aftonbladet today quotes the Queen of Sweden saying that there will be no second royal wedding this year. When Princess Madeleine became engaged to Jonas Bergström last August it was said that the wedding would take place towards the end of 2010 or in early 2011. Many believed the wedding would take place in November, but no date has yet been announced and Queen Silvia now says that there is too much else happening this year to fit in yet another wedding. (That the tabloids have a field day speculating that the Princess and Jonas Bergström will not marry at all is another story, which should be taken with a pinch of salt).

http://www.aftonbladet.se/brollopet/article6943577.ab

Greek royal engagement

Ex-King Konstantinos and ex-Queen Anne-Marie of the Hellenes yesterday announced the engagement of their second son, Prince Nikolaós, and Tatiana Blatnik. Little is known about the future Princess of Greece, except that she works for Diane von Fürstenberg. She is probably in her early thirties; her father was supposedly Slovenian while her mother is apparently German. The Prince, her boyfriend of six years, works for his father.
The engagement was announced from Greece, where the ex-royal family is holidaying. During the years they were banned from entering Greece the ex-King and ex-Queen constantly made grand statements such as “Greece is my home” and “I want to die in Greece”, but after it become possible for them to settle there, they have been in no haste to do so and seem content to go there for shorter stays.
No date has been announced for the wedding. Prince Nikolaós’s elder siblings both married in London, but it is now possible that his wedding may be held in Greece.

Another Bernadotte engagement

On Tuesday Mainau Palace announced the engagement of Count Christian Bernadotte af Wisborg to his girlfriend of two years, Christine Stoltmann, a 31-year-old nurse. They became engaged on 12 August during their summer holiday in Sweden and will wed next summer.
Count Christian, who has studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Constance, is the youngest son of the second marriage of the late former Prince Lennart of Sweden, and as such is a great-grandson of King Gustaf V of Sweden and a great-great-grandson of Emperor Alexander II of Russia.

http://www.mainau.de/mainau-weblog.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=32&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=e60b7d3b06

Princess Madeleine is engaged

The Swedish Royal Court this morning officially announced the engagement of Princess Madeleine to Jonas Bergström, her boyfriend of seven years. No date or place has been set for the wedding, but according to the Royal Court it will only take place after the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling in June 2010 and the general election in September 2010. The engagement took place at Solliden Palace at Öland this weekend and the couple will meet the press there at 4 p.m. today. Both the King and the Government have given their consent, as the Constitution prescribes.

The Royal Court’s press release (in Swedish and English):
http://www.royalcourt.se/ovrigt/pressrum/pressmeddelanden/aretsarkiv/prinsessanmadeleineochjurkandjonasbergstromforlovade.5.4d52a9051226f69aa7780003025.html

The third son of Claes and Elisabeth Bergström, Jonas Claes Bergström was born in Danderyd outside Stockholm on 23 January 1979 and grew up in Djursholm, a well-to-do suburb. He has a master degree in law, graduating from the University of Stockholm in 2006, and works at the law firm Vinge in Stockholm.
Nothing has so far been said about the title issue, unlike in February when the annoucement of Crown Princess Victoria’s engagement to Daniel Westling stated clearly that he would be styled “Prince Daniel, Duke of Westrogothia”. This may mean that Jonas Bergström will not receive any title - which will seem odd if Prince Carl Philip’s future wife is made a princess.
The current King’s sisters were all downgraded from Royal Highnesses to “Princess Firstname, Mrs Lastname” when they married commoners, with the exception of Princess Birgitta, who was the only one of them to marry a prince. The big difference between them and Princess Madeleine is that the latter has succession rights - personally I would find it most natural that she remains HRH Princess Madeleine of Sweden, Duchess of Helsinga and Gestricia, but what her future husband should be known as is less obvious. It really all depends on what has been planned for the future wife of Prince Carl Philip - were she to become a princess and Daniel Westling a prince, it would be only fair that the husband of the youngest child also received that title.
The question of where they will live also remains - it has earlier been speculated about Lilla Parkudden at Djurgården in Stockholm, a property which belongs to the Crown and adjoins Parkudden, which was the summer house of Prince Carl and Princess Ingeborg 1899-1909. Another possible option could be Villa Beylon at Ulriksdal, the former home of Princess Christina, which is now empty and undergoing renovation.
It was the journalist Åsa Bönnelyche at Svensk Damtidning who first broke the news of the engagement in an article at their website yesterday:

http://svenskdam.se/2009/08/extra-extra-extra-prinsessan-madeleine-och-jonas-bergstrom-forlovade/

The Royal Court was unwilling to confirm, while the royal correspondent at the newspaper Expressen, Johan T. Lindwall, recently stated that another royal engagement in Sweden this year was “out of the question”, ignoring the fact that it has happened several times that two royal siblings have been engaged within a short span of time. Today he claims that they have been engaged for two weeks already, but his credibility has probably suffered a bit now.
(The photo above was taken by the Royal Court).