The Swedish Royal Family and Its Members, Explained
Need an explainer on the Swedish royal family? Like most European monarchies, there are plenty of princes and princesses that hang from the branches of the House of Bernadotte family tree—many of whom also regularly make official appearances on behalf of their country.
So who, exactly, resides at the Royal, Drottningholm, and Haga palaces? Here, a rundown of the most important Swedish royals.
King Carl XVI Gustaf
Michael Campanella/Getty Images
The current king and head of the Swedish royal family is King Carl XVI Gustaf—the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history. Born on April 30, 1946, he ascended to the throne in 1973 when he was a mere 27 years old. The reason for the young age was a family tragedy: his father, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, had died in a plane crash when Carl was a baby. After the death of Carl’s grandfather, the royal was the next in line. He has trained with the Swedish Navy, Army, and Air Force, achieving the rank of second lieutenant.
In 1976, he married Miss Silvia Sommerlath at Stockholm Cathedral, who he met at the 1972 Olympic Games. They have three children.
Queen Silvia
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
Formerly Silvia Sommerlath, Queen Silvia was born on December 23, 1943, in West Germany to a German father and Brazilian mother. Four years later, the family moved to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for her father’s job. They returned to Europe in 1957, where she studied to be an interpreter. In 1972, she got a job as a hostess for the Munich Games—where she met Crown Prince Carl Gustaf. They wed in 1976. (That same year, she also became the Head of Protocol for the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria.) She is the founder of the World Childhood Foundation and is a prominent advocate for dementia care.
Crown Princess Victoria
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
The first child of Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustaf, Crown Princess Victoria originally was not supposed to be the heir apparent to the Swedish throne: traditional laws of male primogeniture made it so her younger brother, Prince Carl, surpassed her in the line of succession after his birth in 1979. However, a constitutional change took place later that year that allowed Victoria to eventually inherit the Swedish Crown.
She studied at Yale University in New Haven and Uppsala University in Sweden, then went on to work at the United Nations for a period. In 2009, she announced her engagement to her personal trainer Daniel Westling. They wed the next year at the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in Stockholm. They have two children, Estelle and Oscar.
Prince Daniel
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
The husband of Princess Victoria grew up in the small Swedish town of Ockelbo. After serving in the Swedish military, he moved to Stockholm in 1997 to study fitness. Soon after, he founded his own gym, Master Training—where his clients included Princess Victoria. The two wed in 2009. As a royal, much of his work focuses on The Crown Princess Couple’s Foundation, which supports the health of young children in Sweden.
Princess Estelle
Michael Campanella/Getty Images
Estelle is the first-born daughter of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. The 12-year-old is second in line for the throne. Currently, she is a student at Campus Manilla just outside Stockholm and lives with her family at Haga Palace.
Prince Oscar
NurPhoto/Getty Images
The second child of Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. The eight-year-old is also in primary school at Campus Manilla along with his sister. He occasionally makes public appearances at events like the National Day of Sweden.
Prince Carl Philip
Ian Gavan/Getty Images
The second child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. For seven months, he was the heir to the Swedish throne as the succession laws at times favored eldest sons rather than eldest children. However, the government soon changed the constitution to allow his older sister, Victoria, to remain second in line. He studied at both the Rhode Island School of Design and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences.
In 2015, he married Sofia Hellqvist. They have three children: Prince Alexander, Prince Gabriel, and Prince Julian.
Princess Sofia
Pascal Le Segretain
The wife of Prince Carl Philip. In her twenties, she was a model and reality television contestant, starring on the American show Paradise Hotel. She also spent time in New York completing an accounting course and studying as a yoga instructor.
Unconfirmed rumors say she and the prince met at a nightclub. They announced their engagement in 2014 and married a year later. As a working royal, she is known for her work with the Sophiahemmet Hospital—and even volunteered there during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Princess Madeleine
Michael Campanella/Getty Images
The third child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. She holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from Stockholm University. In 2009, she was briefly engaged to Jonas Bergström. However, the couple split, and a few years later, Madeleine instead married British-born American financier Christopher O’Neill. Upon their marriage, O’Neill forwent any Swedish titles as well as citizenship, opting to remain a private citizen so he could continue working. They have three children: Princess Leonore, Prince Nicolas, and Princess Adrienne.
The family has lived in New York, London, and Florida. In the summer of 2024, the family returned to Sweden. Princess Madeleine takes on limited royal engagements, however, has been a vice president at her mother’s World Childhood Foundation since December 2021.
