Swedish princess turns on beach paparazzi

Sweden's Princess Madeleine and her husband Chris O'Neill. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

Swedish princess turns on beach paparazzi

Sweden's Princess Madeleine has published pictures of her family escaping the Nordic winter in the Maldives – while hitting out at paparazzi disrupting their beach holiday.


The Swedish royal, who lives in London with her husband Chris O'Neill and two children Princess Leonore and Prince Nicolas, tends to keep a low profile in Swedish and international media, often choosing to instead share personal photos on her Facebook page.

On Thursday she made many Swedes regretfully look at the snow-covered ground and outside temperature (-6C in Stockholm, -27C in northern Kiruna) when she published pictures of herself and her two children enjoying a beach holiday in the Maldives.

But the princess' photographs appeared to be part of a bigger message of her deciding to take matters into her own hands, after several Swedish newspapers and magazines published paparazzi pictures taken of the family walking in the 30C sunshine.

"Family time, sadly interrupted. What a pity we weren't just asked for photos, because here are some sweet ones," she pointedly wrote in the Facebook post.

Family time, sadly interrupted. What a pity we weren't just asked for photos, because here are some sweet ones.


Photos from Princess Madeleine of Sweden's post 
Princess Leonore through the years

The luxurious Soneva Fushi resort where they are staying is owned by Swedish woman Eva Malmström Shivdasani and her husband, and according to the Expressen tabloid the Swedish royals are staying in its biggest villa which costs 68,399 kronor ($7,974) a night.

It was not clear how the princess managed to get on to social media, however. The hotel operates a so-called "no news, no shoes" policy, where guests are encouraged to put their shoes and gadgets away for the holiday.

"Live life free of emails. Sense the connection to nature, and just be," urges the website.

This may be harder than it sounds for the tech-addicted Swedes, even if they happen to be royalty. But if Madeleine should suffer withdrawal, she could always kill time watching movies in the resort's under-the-stars cinema or having dinner in its tree-top restaurant.

Madeleine, 33, who relocated with her financier husband O'Neill, 41, to London last year, has previously been criticized for not engaging with the media in the past and one radio editor made headlines in February when he wrote that “waving and smiling is not enough”.

But the couple received a popularity boost earlier in December after they appeared together on 'Skavlan' – Sweden's most-watched talkshow – where they talked about their life in the UK.

2.5 million viewers watched the show, in a country just shy of 10 million citizens.