Princess Birgitta of Sweden

Princess Birgitta of Sweden LoK av KMO (Birgitta Ingeborg Alice) was a member of the Swedish royal family. She was the second child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and an elder sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf.

Family

Born at Haga Palace in Stockholm, she was the second child of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and a granddaughter of King Gustaf VI Adolf. Her sisters are Princess Margaretha, Mrs. Ambler, Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld, and Princess Christina, Mrs. Magnuson.

Among her sisters she alone married a man of princely status, and, in keeping with the tradition that princesses who marry princes retain their royal status, Princess Birgitta retained her Swedish style of Royal Highness, a higher treatment than that of Serene Highness, to which the Princes of Hohenzollern and their wives were historically entitled.

Marriage

In 1959, Birgitta met Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern at a cocktail party in Germany. On 15 December 1960, their engagement was announced.

The couple were married in a civil ceremony in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace of Stockholm on 25 May 1961. The bride's grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, had hoped for a Lutheran ceremony, but Pope John XXIII forbade this. The bridesmaids were the bride’s sister Princess Christina and cousin Princess Benedikte of Denmark; the groomsmen were the bride's brother Crown Prince Carl Gustaf and her cousin Count Michael Bernadotte of Wisborg (son of Sigvard Bernadotte). That evening, the King held a ball at the Royal Palace. A Roman Catholic ceremony was held at Sankt Johann Church at the groom's family seat of Sigmaringen, Germany, on 30 May 1961. Birgitta applied to convert to Roman Catholicism when she married the Hohenzollern prince, but her application was rejected in wording which questioned her spiritual commitment to the change.

Prince Johann Georg and Princess Birgitta separated in 1990, although they remained married. She lived on the island of Mallorca in Spain, while her husband lived in Munich. He died in 2016.

Johann Georg's and Birgitta's marriage produced three children:

• Prince Carl Christian of Hohenzollern (b. 5 April 1962 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany), married Nicole Helene Neschitsch (b. 22 January 1968, Munich) on 26 July 1999 in Kreuzpullach. They have one son:
  • Nicolas Johann Georg Maria, Prince of Hohenzollern (b. 22 November 1999)
• Princess Désirée of Hohenzollern (b. 27 November 1963, Munich). She married Heinrich Franz Josef Georg Maria, Imperial Count of Ortenburg (b. 11 October 1956, Bamberg) on 21 September 1998 in Weitramsdorf. They had three children before divorcing in 2002. Then she married Eckbert Georg Klaus von Bohlen und Halbach (b. 24 March 1956).
  • Carl Theodor, Count of Ortenburg (b. Carl-Theodor Philip Georg Maria in 21 February 1992, Lichtenfels)
  • Frederik-Hubertus, Hereditary Count of Ortenburg (b. Frederik Hubertus Ferdinand Maria on 7 February 1995, Lichtenfels)
  • Carolina, Countess of Ortenburg (b. 23 March 1997)
• Prince Hubertus of Hohenzollern (b. 10 June 1966 in Munich), married Uta Maria König (b. Trier 25 February 1964).

The Princess and her children were passed over for succession to the Swedish throne when subsequent absolute primogeniture was established in Sweden in 1979 and 1980, and then only included her brother's descendants and her uncle Prince Bertil.

Public life

In November 1960, Birgitta visited the United States accompanied by her younger sister Princess Désirée on behalf of their grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf for the 50th anniversary of The American-Scandinavian Foundation. In their honour a ball was organised for the two princesses at the Renaissance Blackstone Hotel in Chicago by Mayor Richard Daley.

Princess Birgitta was involved with golf and charities outside of Sweden and was an honorary board member of the (British) Royal Swedish Golfing Society, a position she took over when her uncle Prince Bertil died. She had her own golf competition in Majorca, the Princess Birgitta Trophy, at her home golf course.

On Christmas Day 2022, Sweden's national public service Sveriges Television broadcast a recent hour-long documentary and interview with the princess where she detailed her often troubling life as a Swedish royal.

Death

On 4 December 2024, the Swedish Royal Court announced that Princess Birgitta had died earlier that day in Mallorca, Spain, at the age of 87.