King Carl Gustaf: family destiny! Sister Birgitta bursts into tears

King Carl Gustav
family destiny! Sister Birgitta bursts into tears

Princess Birgitta, 85, sister of Sweden’s King Carl Gustaf, 76, has been living in Mallorca for over 20 years – far from her relatives and her royal duties, which she has long turned away from. When reporter Jens Lind asked her in a recently broadcast documentary by the Swedish broadcaster “SVT” whether she would see her sister Princess Désirée, 84, again, the emigrant surprisingly replies: “As things stand, I don’t think so – no.” Her siblings are old and some are too ill for such a long journey. Then Princess Birgitta’s tears come…

King Carl Gustaf: Sister Birgitta turned away from royal life

The documentary “Sessan – en kunglig saga” (Eng.: “The Princess – a royal saga”) about King Carl Gustaf’s sister, which was broadcast in Sweden on December 29, 2022, got down to business emotionally. Birgitta is known for not mincing her words. In an interview with the newspaper “Expressen” in 2019, she said about growing up at Haga Castle: “It was like living in a golden cage.” She and her three sisters and brother Carl Gustaf shouldn’t have done anything themselves, they were just at home. Until her marriage in 1961, she was “neither in a restaurant nor in a disco”.

After that, she completely turned away from her royal life and only rarely returned to Sweden for official occasions. Is that finally the end of it? Shortly before the recordings for the documentary, Birgitta found out that her sister Princess Désirée was in poor health. She is now on the mend again.

No reunion with her famous siblings: “We are too old”

Reporter Jens Lind, who is conducting the interview, wants to know from the 85-year-old if she thinks the sisters will meet again. Birgitta doesn’t believe that:

All are too old. My sister is ill and my other sister is in England and is getting older, and so am I. We recently talked about how difficult it was going to be.

Then the princess admits that she and her eldest sister Princess Margaretha, 88, would feel lonely. Birgitta did not ask her brother, King Carl Gustaf, for permission before the very honest recordings, but emphasizes: “I always think of my brother, I would never want to harm him.”

“Dad just didn’t exist anymore”

Another topic is even more emotional. When Jens Lind plays a recording of her father Prince Gustaf Adolf, † 40, Princess Birgitta can no longer hold back her tears. The former king of Sweden died in a plane crash when the princess was just ten years old. “It touches me to see things like this that the family has experienced,” says Birgitta.

It was her father’s voice that touched her the most. The princess also reports on the bad situation for her and her siblings, because her mother, Queen Princess Sibylla, † 64, processed her grief with the help of silence. “It was terrible,” remembers Carl Gustaf’s sister, who only had to undergo heart surgery in 2022. “We siblings didn’t talk about it among ourselves either. Dad just didn’t exist anymore.”

Sources used: svtplay.se, Dana Press, expressen.se

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