Sweden's Princess Sofia Admits She Struggled with 'Hate Storm' Early in Royal Relationship

Stephanie Petit
Updated

Princess Sofia‘s transition from a reality star and men’s magazine model to a Swedish royal was anything but easy.

She opened up about the online bullying she encountered after revealing her relationship with Prince Carl Philip during a new interview with Sweden’s TV4.

“I was met with an enormous hate storm from people who had opinions about me as a person, about my relationship,” Sofia, 33, explained. “I was surprised and it definitely affected me. I didn’t understand that people had such need to express how badly they felt about me. It was very tough.”

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As a result of her own experiences, the Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia Foundation works to combat hate speech and online bullying.

“I was adult when this happened to me, so I can only imagine in a school environment and in other instances how big this can be in a child’s world,” she said in the interview. “They don’t have the same perspective on life and don’t have the understanding that it’s not really about you and that you should just see past it.”

I går träffade jag TV4:s Casten Almqvist för ett samtal om barn och ungdomars liv på nätet. Intervjun sänds i @nyhetsmorgon i morgon bitti kl. 9:40. Senare i morgon kommer jag vara på @letsmakelovegreatagain på Gärdet i Stockholm för att fortsätta diskussionen om hur vi får ett bättre klimat på nätet.

A post shared by Prinsparet (@prinsparet) on Aug 10, 2018 at 8:53am PDT

Igår hade vår stiftelse ett seminarium på @letsmakelovegreatagain om barn och ungas nätvardag - möjligheter och utmaningar. En väldigt inspirerande, saklig och intressant paneldiskussion som landade i några konkreta uppmaningar: ?? • Var tydlig och visa som förälder/vuxen att du är intresserad av och finns för barnen i deras nätvardag. Då är chansen mycket större att de berättar om något jobbigt har hänt. ?? • Låt dem visa hur livet på nätet funkar. ?? • Problemen försvinner inte genom att stänga av dem från nätet. Barn och unga har sina sociala sammanhang där. ?? • Anmäl om du som ung blir utsatt av hot, hat eller trakasserier. ?? • Vi vuxna måste ta ansvar och vara goda förebilder på nätet, barn gör som vi gör. ????: Pernilla Thelaus

A post shared by Prinsparet (@prinsparet) on Aug 12, 2018 at 4:42am PDT

The mother of two added, “For me, I learned to actively stay away from reading about myself. So in my world, I felt like things died down.”

Sofia said in an Instagram post shared to her joint account with her husband on Friday, “Yesterday I met TV4’s Casten Almqvist for a talk about children and adolescents’ lives online.” She added that she would appear at the Let’s Make Love Great Again festival in Stockholm over the weekend to speak about the issue.

Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia
Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia
Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip
Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip

During her days as a glamour model, a side job she pursued while studying in Stockholm, Hellqvist posed for Slitz, a Swedish men’s magazine, wearing just a bikini bottom and a boa constrictor.

The notoriety that came along with Slitz earned her a spot on the Swedish version of the reality show Paradise Hotel, a Real World and Survivor hybrid. The show follows a group of singles living in a luxury resort and pits them against each other to see who will remain at the hotel the longest. Sofia lasted until the final round on the show.

Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip celebrated their third anniversary this summer and are parents to two sons — Prince Alexander, 2, and Prince Gabriel, who will turn 1 later this month.

“We do get glimpses that it’s going to be tougher with two than with one,” Sofia told Swedish magazine Kupé in November. “But there is also twice as much love.”