Lilian, who was born in Swansea, Wales, in August 1915, was well known and loved in her native Sweden for her romance with Prince Bertil.
The two met in 1943 during the Second World War. Lilian had a British husband then who she divorced two years later but King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden would not give his permission for Lilian and his son Prince Bertil to marry.
Bertil’s older brother had died and another of his siblings had married a commoner and so could not take his place on the throne, which meant that had Bertil done the same the royal lineage would have been in jeopardy.
Bertil’s nephew Carl Gustaf came of age in 1973 though and Lilian and Bertil were married three years later, then in their Sixties.
Photo: Getty.
