Sweden`s Prince Carl Philip marries former glamour model

Sweden`s Prince Carl Philip, 36, who is third in line to the throne, married Sofia Hellqvist, 31, a former model who once appeared in a TV reality show, on Saturday.

Sofia Hellqvist first met Prince Philip at a lunch with mutual friends in 2010, and engaged with him last year. However, due to Hellqvist’s past career, many people were opposed to their relationship. Hellqvist posed topless with a boa constrictor for a men’s magazine in 2004. In the following year, she appeared in “Paradise Hotel," a Swedish reality show on 10 men and women living in a hotel together. Afterwards she served as model and yoga instructor, while learning accounting in New York, the U.S.

Their wedding ceremony took place at the Stockholm`s Royal Palace. After the wedding, the couple participated in a coach parade through the city center. Upon returning to the palace, they attended a wedding reception hosted by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. The wedding ceremony was broadcast on TV.

Prince Philip, who is serving as Navy major and motor sports driver, is the Swedish king’s only son, but under the Constitution that requires the succession of the throne according to age, he is third in line for the throne. First in line is Princess Victoria, King’s first daughter, 38, and second is Estelle, 3, Victoria’s daughter.

aimhigh@donga.com