Princess Birgitta was born as Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla's second daughter on January 19, 1937. Together with her older sister Margaretha and her two younger sisters Desirée and Christina, she became one of the "Haga sisters", as the family lived at Haga Palace during the 1940s.
Their idyllic childhood was depicted in numerous newsreels. After their father passed away in a plane crash in Denmark in 1947 and Haga Palace was to be restored, the family moved to Stockholm Palace in 1950.
In an interview with Aftonbladet in 2015, she described the time at Haga as her happiest.
Then we were a family. That was when my dad was still alive. He died when I had just celebrated my tenth birthday, she said.
The sorrow after her father's death followed her throughout her life.
We weren't allowed to talk about it, because my mom absolutely didn't want to talk about dad. It wasn't quite right. I miss dad more and more every day, she said to Aftonbladet.
Received private tutoring
At first, the princesses received private tutoring at the Royal Palace, together with daughters of the royal family's friends, but at the age of 14, Princess Birgitta began attending the French School, and later attended a girls' school in Chateaux d'Oex, Switzerland.
She herself told that she didn't have it easy in school, but that she enjoyed the scout group Blåvingarna.
Since Princess Birgitta had a great interest in sports, she trained to become a gymnastics director at the current Gymnastics and Sports University College 1956-1958. She maintained her interest throughout her life and in 1967, she released the LP record "Spänsta with Birgitta". She played tennis, fenced, and later golf became her great passion.
"Fell in love at once"
In 1959, when she was studying German in Munich, she met Prince and art historian Johann Georg von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. In the interview with Aftonbladet, she talks about their first meeting:
My future husband was supposed to pick me and my friend up with a car. I sat in the back. I fell in love at once.
After the couple got married in 1961, she moved permanently to Munich and lived a relatively normal life, which was an adjustment.
To pick up a phone and just call a dentist, have money in hand and go out shopping ... I hadn't done anything. Everything was totally new, she said in Jens Lind's SVT documentary "Sessan – a royal saga" from 2022.
Moved to Mallorca
In Munich, Princess Birgitta, among other things, opened her own fashion boutique in the 1980s, but in the mid-1990s, she moved alone to Mallorca, where she lived until her death.
In 1997, Princess Birgitta wrote her memoir "My own way" in collaboration with Fred König. She made a "Summer" in P1 in 2009 and was the king's sister who most frequently appeared in the media.
Princess Birgitta passed away on Mallorca, according to the Royal Court's press department. She became 87 years old.
Corrected: In an earlier version, Princess Birgitta's father was given the wrong title.
