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ROYAL FAMILY

Profile: Popular Crown Princess Victoria

Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria, whose engagement to her former gym teacher was announced on Tuesday, is a popular and respected royal known for her easy-going style, poise and intelligence.

Profile: Popular Crown Princess Victoria

The brown-eyed princess with long brunette locks is admired both at home and abroad for her natural ease with people, her broad smile and the popular impression she makes in her duties representing Sweden despite her relatively young age.

At 31, she has spent most of her adult years preparing for her future role as regent with a specially-tailored education, which has included two years of studies at Yale University in the United States, stints at the United Nations, the European Union, and internships with the Swedish government and military.

Most recently Victoria, who is due to one day become Sweden’s third regent queen, has studied development aid, conflict management and political science.

Daughter of King Carl XVI Gustaf, 62, and Queen Silvia, 65, she regularly tops the list of Swedes’ favourite royal.

“Scrutinised — and approved,” headlined Swedish tabloid Expressen on Tuesday after rumours of the engagement to Daniel Westling emerged.

Media have long speculated over the date of Victoria’s nuptials after seven years of courtship with Westling, with the tabloids regularly publishing pictures of her attending her friends’ weddings with the caption “When will it be her turn?”.

Some gossip magazines have speculated that her younger sister Madeleine, 26, was putting pressure on her to wed. She is reportedly eager to marry her own beau, Jonas Bergström, but according to royal experts Madeleine would not be permitted to do so until Victoria has wed.

Madeleine was in fact the person who introduced Victoria to her future husband, taking her big sister along for a workout at her gym which is owned by Westling.

The pair have been inseparable ever since, though they have very rarely appeared together at official royal functions.

Victoria is often seen shopping or visiting cafes in central Stockholm with her friends or strolling through the woods in Westling’s hometown of Ockelbo — her love of nature is well-known — and her casual, down-to-earth style has won the hearts of Swedes.

“Princess of the people — and the forest,” gossip magazine Svensk Damtidning wrote recently, describing how her love of nature influenced her choice of clothes: jeans, sneakers, and wellies to take labrador Jambo out for a morning walk.

Victoria attended high school in central Stockholm, and shortly afterwards lived for a brief period in New York to enjoy the freedom of everyday life unavailable to her in Sweden.

She now lives at the royal family’s residence outside Stockholm, Drottningholm, and has reportedly been practically living with Westling since he moved to a nearby residence last year.

Like the rest of her family, she has for the most part avoided the scandals that have plagued other European monarchies.

While she has over the years proven herself to be capable of acting as regent, the pressure on her is immense and the expectations sometimes too much to bear.

In 1997, the palace confirmed that the visibly thinned-down princess was suffering from an eating disorder, and asked the media to respect her privacy during what was described as a difficult time.

She recovered soon after, and has since talked candidly in the media about the pressures facing young women in general.

Victoria Ingrid Alice Desiree was born on July 1, 1977.

She was however not born crown princess.

Sweden’s succession law, enabling the monarch’s first-born child to inherit the throne regardless of gender, was only changed after the birth of her younger brother, Prince Carl Philip, in May 1979.

The law went into effect on January 1, 1980.

WORKING IN SWEDEN

Swedish Royal Guards scrap ceremonial helmets over safety concerns

The King’s mounted Royal Guards will no longer be able to wear their iconic ceremonial helmets on parades, after the Swedish Work Environment Authority warned of serious safety concerns.

Swedish Royal Guards scrap ceremonial helmets over safety concerns

“We take the safety of our employees extremely seriously and we are going to address this immediately,” colonel Stefan Nacksten, head of the Royal Guards, wrote in a statement. 

Employed by the Armed Forces, the Royal Guards are the King’s cavalry and infantry units and are a well-known sight at ceremonies in Sweden, including at the changing of the guard at the Royal Palace of Stockholm every day in summer – a popular spectacle for Stockholmers and tourists alike.

The helmets will no longer be used by Royal Guards on horseback from July 7th, as they do not conform to safety standards for riding helmets, although guards parading on foot will still be permitted to wear them.

They are part of the 1895 parade uniforms and were last modified in 2000. The Armed Forces will now create an entirely new helmet which looks the part, but is also safe for riding.

“We’re working on finding an alternative solution as quickly as possible which meets safety requirements and can also be used during parades,” Nacksten said.

“We’ve been working long-term with this issue but now that it has been assessed [by the Swedish Work Environment Authority] we need to take measures immediately,” he added.

“This is good, and now we’re working to make sure something good comes out of this and we can get a safe riding helmet for parades in place as soon as possible.”

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