Prince Bertil of Sweden

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Today marks the Anniversary of the Birth of Prince Bertil, Duke of Halland, who was born on this day in 1912. The third son of Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf of Sweden and Princess Margaret of Connaught, his siblings were Queen Ingrid of Denmark, Prince Gustaf AdolfPrince Bertil, Sigvard, Count of Wisborg, and Count Carl Johan Bernadotte, and lost they mother in 1920, and two years later, their father remarried to Lady Louise Mountbatten, who became their beloved stepmother. Prince Bertil became a naval officer and, during the Second World War, he served as Swedish naval attaché in London. After the tragic death of Prince Gustaf Adolf in 1947, Prince Bertil became the 2nd-in-line to the Throne, after his two other brothers gave up their succession rights to marry commoners. He and the Welsh actress Lilian Craig were lovers for over 34 years but didn’t marry in order to preserve his place in the line of succession, in case his nephew, King Carl Gustav, came to throne before reaching the age of majority, and they eventually married in 1976. Prince Bertil and Princess Lilian were valued members of the family and eventually became surrogate grandparents for the children of King Carl XVI Gustav and Queen Silvia, leaving his home, Villa Solbacken, to Prince Carl Philip after his death in 1997. Princess Lilian continued to be a beloved member of the Royal Family and passed away in 2013.

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