In true fairytale style, the beautiful young princess fled her kingdom when married to her intended prince took a turn for the worse. On foreign shores, the princess met the man of her dreams, they fell in love, they married, and now they have a beautiful baby daughter with whom to share their love. Most fairy tales come with a shadowed side, however, and in the case of our beautiful princess, the people of her homeland wished she’d come home to birth her baby on royal soil.
The beautiful princess of this tale, royally known as Madeleine Therese Amelie Josephine, Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Halsingland and Gastrikland, daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, but more commonly referred to as Princess Madeleine, is the third and youngest child, second daughter, to the King and Queen of Sweden. At birth, she was #3 in line for the Swedish throne, after her older sister, Victoria, first in line, and her brother, Carl Philip, second.
Princess Madeleine, 31, once nicknamed the “Party Princess,” became officially engaged in 2009 to a Swedish attorney named Jonas Bergstrom. Their engagement could not be announced until Bergstrom acquired official approval from the Swedish Cabinet and its approval then relayed to the King. The wedding day was set for 2010.
Somewhere along the way, however, the road to romance took a wrong turn and the marriage was called off. It is said the intended prince had eyes for other fair maidens.
The heart-broken princess landed a job at the World Childhood Foundation, a philanthropic organization co-founded by the Queen. The job was in New York City.
Christopher O’Neill was also in New York City.
O’Neill, 39, is a London-born American financier who befriended the princess as she established a life for herself in her new American home. Friendship soon blossomed into love and the princess has been described as “always happy when she is with him.”
The couple announced their engagement in October 2012 and were married in Stockholm in the Royal Palace chapel in June 2013. The couple continued to live in New York City.
Their daughter, Her Royal Highness, the Princess Leonore Lilian Maria, Duchess of Gotland, now fifth in line to the Swedish throne, was born in New York City on February 20, 2014. A 21-gun salute in her honor was sounded at the Royal Palace in Stockholm to announce her birth.
Princess Madeleine is said to have had a difficult pregnancy and wanted her child to be born in care of the medical staff at New York Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center who supported her throughout her pregnancy rather than travel to Sweden during its last stages. The decision to remain in the US for the royal birth has not been met with enthusiasm in her home country although Princess Leonore will be christened in the Royal Palace church in the summer of 2014.
Little Princess Leonore will retain her position in line to the Swedish throne only if she grows up in Sweden, is not raised as a Catholic, and does not claim US citizenship. Her father is Catholic and kept his US citizenship when he married into the Swedish royal family. He also turned down the royal title offered to him.
Source: Varin, Andra. “Name of Princess Madeleine’s baby revealed.” CBS News. CBS Interactive Inc. Feb 26, 2014. Web. Mar 1, 2014.
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