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Since the publication of the book The Reluctant Monarch last November, speculation over King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden’s ties to the Mafia has grown. It has certainly grown louder this weekend with the release of recordings show the King and a longtime friend tried to pay off a sex club owner, who is a gangster, to retract claims that Carl Gustaf attended sex parties there.
 View more photos of the Swedish King here The recordings have lead to many in Sweden to urge the King to come clean about his Mafia ties and apologize to the country for lying about the connections.
Even Constitutional Committee chairman Peter Eriksson, MP, is calling for the truth from the royal family.
“If it does not happen, we’ll see what we do,” says Peter Eriksson told Expressen.
The recordings have the King’s friend, Anders Lettström trying to broker a deal through Daniel Webb, an associate of Mille Markovic, the nightclub owner. King Carl was looking to pay to stop the story of him attending sex clubs from continuing to swirl. He was also looking to prevent Markovic from publishing the photos of him at the clubs.
“After our meeting on Kungsholmen, I talked to the King during the evening,” Mr Lettström said, according to Aftonbladet. “Then I told him that Mille had said that he could take back what he said, and that he wanted to be paid I thought it was between one and two million Kronor.”
Previously, the King spoke to TT news agency and denied knowledge of Lettström’s ties to the Mafia.
But with those recordings coming to light, it looks like he lied to Sweden, and the royal court is helping out.
“Our comment is that we do not comment on this further. There is data that has existed for a year,” says the court’s head of information Bertil Ternert to Expressen.se on Saturday morning.
But there is no stopping the urge for the truth, with it coming from Swedish politicians.
“I think it’s a difficult situation as the King got into, even before this last one with Lettström. A prerequisite for the monarchy to remain as true today is that there is some sort of confidence in the foundation of politics, citizens and the royal family,” said MP Peter Eriksson.
 Click here for photos of Crown Princess Victoria “If it is true, it is extremely serious,” said Ulf Bjereld, professor of political science at the University of Gothenburg. ” It would show that King lied to the entire Swedish population. Then it’s a huge crisis of confidence because he is the country’s head of State and shall represent the Swedish people in all contexts.”
Some are wondering if this could lead to King Carl XVI Gustaf’s abdication.
“If it is true that Lettström spoke to the King,” said Lawyer Peter Althin, who is a member of the Republican Association. “It means that our head of state has lied to its citizens straight up the face, and this is not acceptable. The natural thing would be King, if that his friend talked to him about these contacts, realize that it is unacceptable and then should he abdicate.”
If the King abdicates, that means Crown Princess Victoria will become Queen of Sweden while either in the last stages of her first pregnancy or with a newborn child.
It is being reported that all the Swedish royals are upset with Carl Gustaf. Queen Silvia cannot forgive him and does her best to keep up appearances.
Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine are doing all they can to stay out of Sweden and avoid their father. Carl Philip has been abroad either vacationing in Thailand or representing his country in South Africa as he did recently. This scandal may explain why Madeleine has been spending so much time in New York City.
Prince Daniel is reportedly doing everything he can to be supportive of his in-laws, particularly Victoria.
Sources:Telegraph (UK), Expressen
 View more photos here at Daylife.com Princess Madeleine of Sweden wore a lovely red gown for the American Scandinavian Society’s 2011 Yule ball at the Metropolitan Club Friday.
Her Royal Highness was all smiles as she posed for cameras before entering the club. Clearly, this has been a good year for her. Her charity work keeps developing as well as her relationship with New York financier Chris O’Neil.
Madeleine had more reasons to smile at the Yule Ball. She received a humanitarian award for her work with World Childhood Foundation, which was started in 1999 by her mother, Queen Silvia.
Source: Svensk Damtidning
Earlier this month, Sweden’s Princess Madeleine went to China and Inner Mongolia to oversee projects on behalf of the World Childhood Foundation. Although she was in the two places from November 11th to the 16th, the Swedish court and press is revealing the Princess’ work now.
 Click here to see more photos at Kungahuset.se “I have been to China several times to Childhood’s behalf, but this visit was particularly important, as Half the Sky is continuing its expansion,” Her Royal Highness said about her visit. She was referring to the Half the Sky Foundation which focuses on children between the ages of newborn to 16 years who are living in orphanages throughout China. The foundation is one of the few Chinese NGOs operating and is a model for how such foundations in the country.
Madeleine also said that she met “with the directors but more importantly, the staff at the centers, and being able to hold and interact with the children, makes our work real and contributes to the understanding of the program and how to help in better ways.”
The Princess went to Changzhou, 20 miles east of Shanghai, and Hohhot in Inner Mongolia to see how Half the Sky is taking care of children.
In addition, it has been revealed today that Princess Madeleine will not be at this year’s Nobel Prize ceremony. Instead, she will be at an event for the centennial anniversary of Marie Curie’s second Nobel Prize, possibly in New York where she currently lives.
Sources: World Childhood Foundation, Kungahuset, The Local
 Click here to see more photos Sweden’s Prince Daniel is wrapping up his week and a half trip to the United States. He started on October 24th in Washington, D.C. and on Monday he went to New York City, where he will end his working visit on Wednesday.
The Prince met with the Swedish United Nations delegation, with whom he sat with during a morning meeting. He later met with UNICEF and the World Food Program, where he discussed healthy eating. The point of Daniel’s entire U.S. trip was to promote healthy food as well as Swedish dishes.
In the afternoon, His Royal Highness headed to Brooklyn where he visited the Gotham Greens with with rural Minister Eskil Erlandsson. Gotham Greens is a large greenhouse that has grown lettuce and herbs on top of a roof in an environmentally sound way.
 Click here to see more photos at Daylife.com On Tuesday, the Prince headed to Harlem where he went to the Harlem Children’s Zone – part of the Promise Academy Charter Schools in New York. The Harlem Children’s Zone is a non-profit organization that offers health and community building programs for disadvantaged kids in the neighborhood.
He later met with Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson’s restaurant Red Rooster in Harlem.
The chef praised Daniel, saying: “It’s great to have him here, we had a great time. He took the time and listened when we talked about Harlem and our area.”
Afterward, the Prince paid a visit to the Mando Group, a Swedish based program for eating disorders, overweight and obesity with clinics around the world.
In the evening, Prince Daniel met up with sister-in-law Princess Madeleine for the Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce’s “From Farm to Fork” gala dinner at the IAC Headquarters.
Tomorrow, both Daniel and Madeleine will attend the “From Farm to Fork” seminar.
Source: Kungahuset, The Royal Forums, Aftonbladet
The royals of Scandinavia spent some time together in New York, both in the morning and in the evening. They are in the Big Apple mainly to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Scandinavian-American Foundation.
 Click here for images of the Ground Zero visit But sadly, no visit to New York is without a visit to Ground Zero, site of the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. Together, King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, and Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary went to the place where nearly 3,000 people died. With them were the Presidents of Finland and Iceland. Everyone went to the memorial and laid flowers there. All look solemn during the visit.
For the rest of the day, each royal couple went to their separate engagements. The Danish Crown Princely couple went to the BIG Architectural Studios, the Norwegian King and Queen attended an awards ceremony, while their Swedish counterparts met with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and his wife Yoo Soon-taek at the United Nations headquarters.
 Check out more photos of the gala here In the evening, it was time to dress up for a black-tie event for the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s centennial ball. All three royal couples, plus the Presidents of Finland and Iceland, went to the Hilton Hotel for the event. Even Sweden’s Princess Madeleine, who’s been spending most of her time in New York these days, attended.
After today, Frederik and Mary will spend a few more days in New York, while the Kings and Queens of Norway and Sweden will go north to Jamestown, near Buffalo, New York Saturday, to celebrate the Norden Club’s centennial anniversary and visit the Roger Tory Peterson Institute. The Norden Club was founded in 1902 by Swedish immigrants to the area.
Source: WGRZ, The Royal Forums
 Click here to see the other celebs at Zimbio.com Sweden’s Princess Madeleine was one of the attendees of the 2011 Angel Ball to benefit Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation in New York City. Her Royal Highness rubbed elbows with the famous and infamous at the event at Cipriani Wall Street, including Kim Kardashian, Ne-Yo, Naomi Campbell and Ivana Trump.
The Gabrielle’s Angel Foundation focuses on cancer research.
Last week, Sweden’s Princess Madeleine spent three days in Brazil where she did work for World Childhood Foundation (WCF). She was there to take a look at some of the projects WCF is doing in the country, as well as attend a conference done by the foundation.
 Click here to learn more about the conference In Sao Paulo, the Princess was at the “Na Mão Certa – The Right Direction” conference along with two executive directors of WCF: Ana Maria Drummond for the Brazilian chapter, and Charlotte Brandin for the American offices. This conference focused on protecting children from sexual abuse, particularly at the hands of truck drivers who might exploit street children.
The panel included psychologists and representatives of trucking companies. About 1,000 companies pledged to educate their drivers to not sexually exploit young children they might find at truck stops.
“The impact of having this many trucking companies signing on shows how a partnership of this magnitude can have a direct impact on the individual child level,” said Charlotte Brandin, emphasizing how companies can contribute directly to social and cultural change.
After her three days in Brazil, the Princess flew to New York City, which is apparently her home base. There, she does work for WCF’s offices.
The Foundation was set up in 1999 by Madeleine’s mother, Queen Silvia.
Source: Childhood-USA
The House of Bernadotte came together Thursday for the annual opening of the Swedish Parliament, the Riksdagen.
 View more photos here at Svensk Damtidning In the morning, the royal family took part in a church service before the actual opening of the Riksdagen. Everyone was there, from Their Majesties to all three of their children: Crown Princess Victoria with her noticeably growing baby bump, Prince Carl Philip who was taking a day away from his agricultural studies, and Princess Madeleine, who had flown in from New York. Even Prince Daniel was there, on the very day he marked his 38th birthday.
But duties comes first for royalty. After the service, the royals sat through the first day of Sweden’s Parliament session for the political year.
The reason why the royals wear black during the opening of Riksdagen is because that color was the hue for the ladies of the court starting in the late 18th century during the reign of King Gustaf III. It is to upkeep the tradition these days for the royal women.
 See more pics at Svensk Damtidning But black is an option later in the day when an opera is performed and the royals attend. Crown Princess Victoria wore a silvery knee length dress that hid her pregnancy. But her sister, Princess Madeleine wowed many fashion followers by wearing a rather sexy gown – and yes, the color was black.
Source: Svensk Damtidning, Wikipedia
Princess Madeleine’s romance with New York stock broker Chris O’Neill continues as she and her beau attended the annual Amadeus Festival in Salzburg, Austria Monday. The festival is part of the Salzburg Festival which runs for five weeks starting in late July.
 Click here to view gallery at Madonna24.at Wearing a blue dress and a fur wrap, Madeleine beamed as she and 37 year old Chris entered the opera, while her boyfriend held a box of cigarettes. The Amadeus Festival was organized by Chris’ mother, Eva Maria O’Neill, who has done so for years. A socialite who mingles with royalty – she supposedly once dated Prince Charles – Eva Maria called the Princess “a wonderful person”.
For the summer, Madeleine and her boyfriend have been spending time together in Sweden, Italy and Switzerland. The other day in Salzburg, the couple stayed at the luxurious Hotel Schloss Fuschl where they had lunch with friends.
Chris was introduced to King Carl XVI Gustaf during this summer. Last spring, Queen Silvia met her youngest daughter’s new love, and is said to be pleased with him.
Princess Madeleine is expected to return to New York in autumn to continue working for World Childhood Foundation, the charity set up by the Queen.
Sources: Svensk Damtidning, Starlounge.se, Wikipedia
The Swedish royal court recently published an interview with Princess Madeleine where she briefly discussed working for World Childhood Foundation in the United States. The Princess has been living in New York City for well over a year, and while the reasons for that are not fully clear, this interview is likely an attempt to ease criticism that Madeleine is wasting tax payers’ money by doing little but shop and have fun.
 Read more of Madeleine's interview here First, she was asked what she does for WCF, which was set up by her mother, Queen Silvia in 1999 to give children better childhoods around the world.
“I am a project administrator at Childhood’s office in New York,” Madeleine began. “Every day is slightly different, but if I were to describe a day at the office it would involve fairly normal office work. I arrive at the office in the morning, go through my e-mails, read reports, communicate with the projects or deal with any other tasks on my desk for the day. I sometimes attend meetings with various companies in order to try to build new corporate contacts so that Childhood can grow in the US.”
Next, Madeleine described project visits, which it has been reported by WCF is something she often does.
“You can always read about a project, but getting out and meeting the children who receive help or hearing directly from the enthusiasts who run the projects is completely different. It’s fantastic being able to hear their stories and to listen to them when they talk about their day-to-day work, their setbacks, but also their many successes and the progress they’ve made. That gives me the energy to want to do more and get involved more.”
The Princess also confirmed that by the fall, she will be returning to New York to continue working and expanding WCF. However, it is unknown when she will return to Sweden and perform any royal engagements as it is expected of any royal of any country.
Source: Swedish Royal Court
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