1905-2005, September biography: Sonja

[Birgit Hansen]

Royal historian.
You seem to live in the 1800 and 1900 century, when arranged marriages were accepted and maybe even required, but that is not the way we live anymore and we don't want to go back to these days.
Yes princes and princesses where forced to marry for political reasons, to build alliances and to prevent wars. But the so called royal marriages had a personal very high cost in form of very unhappy lives. The royal couple would have to produce a couple of kids and then they didn't have to see each other except for officiel reasons.
At least the prince/king would have a mistress with whom he would produce a number of kids (for the taxpayers to support).
As a scandinavian I am proud of our royal families (read: princses and princesses). They stick up for them self and insist of beeing happy - in other words, we don't condone arranged marriages in any shape or form.

[Paty]

A New Biography is to be written by Ingar Sletten Kolloen.

The Royal house has announced today that Ingar Sletten Kolloen is to be written a new biography about Her Majesty Queen Sonja. Is expected that this book will be published and the end of 2011.

kongehuset.no - Ny biografi om Dronningen

[Maura724]

I'm assuming there won't be an English translation?

[The Crown Prince]

Call me nostalgic, but considering the bad press surrounding royal wives of recent note (i.e. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, Crown Princess Masako of Japan and the lamented Diana, Princess of Wales), I was just wondering how Queen Sonja handled herself in the early years as the sole female member in her new family. She appears to be doing remarkable well and her reign as royal consort is admirable. However, given the aforementioned list of examples of how a royal fairytale can go terribly wrong, i just wanted to be certain.

I did a little research and discovered that she suffered two miscarriages in the early 70s and that initially, she was an unwelcomed intruder into the royal palace. I would be so appreciative to anyone who could provide me with information on how she handled herself. Did she suffer depression? Was her husband unfaithful? Did she endure ridicule from the palace help?

[Her_Majesty]

Originally Posted by The Crown Prince

I was just wondering how Queen Sonja handled herself in the early years as the sole female member in her new family.

Sonja once admitted that it was quite hard in the beginning. She sort of married into a "male" family. She once said that the Royal Court didn't really know about the needs of a femala Royal at all. ... since there wasn't a female consort in the palace since Märtha's death...

Originally Posted by The Crown Prince

I did a little research and discovered that she suffered two miscarriages in the early 70s and that initially, she was an unwelcomed intruder into the royal palace. I would be so appreciative to anyone who could provide me with information on how she handled herself. Did she suffer depression? Was her husband unfaithful?

I don't know if she suffered from depressions (there are rumors... because of the misscarriages and everything... but which woman wouldn't react like this after such a hard time...) and I never heard about Harald being unfaithful...

[Maura724]

Yes, I've heard rumors about depression as well, both during the long period when she and Harald couldn't marry as well as the early years when she wasn't able to have children. Completely understandable in both situations...9 years is an incredibly long time. And her first couple years as Crown Princess certainly had to be very difficult - Harald was the only heir to the Norwegian throne, and if he and Sonja didn't have any children, there was no one to inherit after him (his sisters and their kids weren't in the line of succession because women couldn't inherit at that time). So the future of the monarchy was in essence hanging on Sonja, and I can't imagine the pressure that must have been on her to produce a male heir.

It's also true that she married into a male-dominated royal house as Harald's mom was already dead, and she's said this was difficult. Then-Crown Princess Margrethe of Denmark was apparently a great source of support to her at the time - they became great friends before Harald and Sonja married and still talk on the phone nearly everyday. Sonja has said before that she doesn't think she would have made it through the nine years of waiting without Margrethe.

Oh, and this is one couple that's never had any rumors of infidelity.

[norwegianne]

Originally Posted by The Crown Prince

Call me nostalgic, but considering the bad press surrounding royal wives of recent note (i.e. Grand Duchess Maria Teresa of Luxembourg, Crown Princess Masako of Japan and the lamented Diana, Princess of Wales), I was just wondering how Queen Sonja handled herself in the early years as the sole female member in her new family. She appears to be doing remarkable well and her reign as royal consort is admirable. However, given the aforementioned list of examples of how a royal fairytale can go terribly wrong, i just wanted to be certain.

I did a little research and discovered that she suffered two miscarriages in the early 70s and that initially, she was an unwelcomed intruder into the royal palace. I would be so appreciative to anyone who could provide me with information on how she handled herself. Did she suffer depression? Was her husband unfaithful? Did she endure ridicule from the palace help?

It was more a matter of the court begin extremely male dominated, since CP Märtha's death, and set in its ways, not that Sonja was necessarily the only female member of the family. Even if Princess Astrid had stepped in as the first lady in that period, she was also setting up her own household, was accustomed to the structure as it was and so on.

During her education in Switzerland as a 17 year old, she really did not feel at home, in the beginning, and wrote home complaining about it. Her father wrote back that "if you have set your mind on something, you will be very disappointed if you don't complete it." (Kronprinsesse Sonja, p. 37) and that's definitely something that marked her entrance in the royal family.

One of the things about the Queen is that she is extremely focused and detail oriented, to the point where it has taken playing with grandchildren to mellow the overly perfectionist image she has in the eyes of Norwegians.

I think that the one thing she focused on was to further her education. She took, what today amounts to, a bachelor's degree at the University of Oslo, studied French in France, collected art and started on her walking trips.

Of course, the media storm around Mette-Marit's entry into the family brought back a lot of the memories from the 9 year long wait, so she had a bit of an emotional set-back during that time.

[Maura724]

Originally Posted by norwegianne

During her education in Switzerland as a 17 year old, she really did not feel at home, in the beginning, and wrote home complaining about it. Her father wrote back that "if you have set your mind on something, you will be very disappointed if you don't complete it." (Kronprinsesse Sonja, p. 37)

That's a very revealing quote, Norwegianne. As someone who only speaks English, I always appreciate it when members post translations of this kind of stuff, so thanks.

Originally Posted by norwegianne

Of course, the media storm around Mette-Marit's entry into the family brought back a lot of the memories from the 9 year long wait, so she had a bit of an emotional set-back during that time.

What do you mean? Did she discuss this in an interview somewhere?

One thing I've always wondered about is Princess Astrid's role in everything and her relationship with her sister-in-law. It's always presented as though Sonja were the only woman in the royal house because Crown Princess Martha had died years ago, but as Norwegianne pointed out that isn't the case, Astrid was there as well. She had been acting as First Lady from her mother's death in 1954 to Harald and Sonja's marriage and I always thought she continued to have royal duties for awhile thereafter. Was Sonja able to get any help/support from her? Did they get along or even spend much time together?

[yoyo1987]

how are beautiful these photos

[captainmooreway]

Does anyone know of any biographies that can be bought in english on Sonja? Thank You!!

[Maura724]

I don't think there are any, Captain, which makes me sad, too. I do own Norges Kronprinsesse, though, which has lots of good pictures even if I can't read any of it.

[Her_Majesty]

Originally Posted by Maura724

I don't think there are any, Captain, which makes me sad, too. I do own Norges Kronprinsesse, though, which has lots of good pictures even if I can't read any of it.

Does it have unknown / rare pictures?

[Her_Majesty]

In the recent NRK interview for the 25th enthronement anniversary Queen Sonja talked about her miscarriage in 1970:

Queen Sonja of Norway opens up about devastating miscarriagw
Norway's Queen Sonja Speaks Out About Her Devastating Miscarriage : People.com