Of course, Madeleine is more than qualified. She has long carried out official royal duties, and serves as the Deputy Honorary Chair of her mother’s charity, the World Childhood Foundation.
Still, regency is a fair amount of pressure for a princess who has only returned to Stockholm this summer. Madeleine and her husband, the suave British-American financier Christopher O’Neill, enjoyed quite the jet-setting lifestyle, flitting between New York and London before settling down in sunny Florida by 2018, living in a $7million Miami mansion.
One year later, King Carl Gustaf stripped her three children, Princess Leonore, Prince Nicolas and Princess Adrienne, of their royal status in an attempt to streamline the royal family (a move similar to that of Denmark’s former Queen Margrethe). The children retained their princely titles, but are no longer styled as His or Her Royal Highness.
Speaking at the time, Princess Madeleine said that she was pleased by the rescinding of her children’s status, writing: ‘Earlier today, the court announced that Leonore, Nicolas and Adrienne will no longer belong to the royal house. This change has been planned for a long time. Chris and I think it’s good that our children are now getting a greater opportunity to shape their own lives as private individuals in the future.’
Prince Carl Philip, too, said that the decision was in the best interest of his young family. At the time, he and Princess Sofia had two children, and the couple felt that a lack of royal status would grant Alexander and Gabriel ‘freer choices in life’.