14 DAY TRIAL // 97-year-old princess Lilian of Sweden has passed away on Sunday, March 10. According to the Inquisitr, she and Prince Bertil of Sweden met during the Second World War, and waited decades to marry.
Lilian was born Lilian Davies, a commoner from Wales who met the prince during WWII, in London. She was working in a radio manufacturing factory, while also putting in volunteer work at an army hospital.
She was born on August 30, 1915, in Swansea and started working at 16 years old. She would star in adverts and have parts in movies, and ended up marrying an actor in London. She and British actor Ivan Craig tied the knot in 1940.
In 1943, she met Prince Bertil, a naval attaché at the Swedish Embassy in London at the time. They were introduced at the Les Ambassadeurs club, had cocktails at a party in her flat and became friends.
Their became romantically involved after Bertil picked her up in his car during an air raid in London, helping her stay safe.
“He was so handsome my prince. Especially in uniform. So charming and thoughtful. And so funny. Oh how we laughed together,” Lilian once said. In 2000, she chronicled their encounter and subsequent life together in her “My Life With Prince Bertil” memoir.
According to the Independent, she was still married at the time, with her husband away with the troops. They divorced and she started a relationship with Bertil that only ended in marriage in 1976, 33 years later.
Since she was a divorcee and a commoner, she could not wed Bertil without jeopardizing the Bernadotte dynasty. Bertil's older brother died in a plane crash, and other older brothers had stepped down from inheriting the throne.
Even so, they lived together and often professed their love to one another, until he passed away in Stockholm in 1997.
“After all, we are still very happy, aren’t we?” Bertil said in 1976.