It can be expected that Princess Madeleine's baby will be closely watched by Swedish media.
Royal baby watch
When King Carl XVI Gustaf's sisters had their babies in the 1960s and 1970s, Swedish media kept a moderate distance.
Princess Madeleine can’t count on the same kind of treatment. With the exception of Princess Christina’s two youngest children, she and her sisters Birgitta and Désirée had their babies when our King was still only a Crown Prince. The relationship thus is the same now as Crown Princess Victoria’s sister Madeleine is expecting her baby. That’s where the similarities stop.
In 1960s Sweden, media behaved differently toward the royal family. "The King’s sisters’ babies were not watched that much by media, and also the three princesses chose to live discrete lives,” says Sten Hedman, former royal court reporter, with long experience in Swedish media. Back then, the papers didn’t report on broken relationships and engagements the same way they have done with for instance Madeleine. Hedman also believes Madeleine’s baby will inherit the interest from the media. The baby is expected to be a girl, and people in the know guess her name will be Eloise, Désirée or Alice. And just one more time: In order for this baby, whose parents plan for her to be born in the U.S., to be in the Swedish Act of Succession, she needs to become a Swedish citizen, raised in the Lutheran faith (Chris O’Neill is a Catholic), and also grow up in Sweden (spending summers only there will not count).
