Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden have released the first photo of their newborn baby girl, hours after her grandfather made an awkward name blunder
The Swedish royal family have welcomed a new baby girl after a huge mistake with her name.
Princess Sofia and Prince Carl Philip have released the first photo of their newborn daughter, Ines Marie Lilian Silvia, on their social media. The princess shared the sweet photograph of the four-day-old infant, curled up and smiling, wrapped in a knitted blanket.
The adorable snap was posted on Instagram hours after the monarch, King Carl XVI Gustaf, accidentally announced the wrong name for his new granddaughter. Princess Ines, who is eighth in line to the Swedish throne, is the royal couple’s fourth child.
Her excited grandfather, the King of Sweden, confirmed the baby’s name at a council meeting on Monday morning. But in an awkward blunder, the monarch, who is dyslexic, accidentally said her name was Princess Inse, not Ines. He also got the order of her middle names muddled. Her full title will be Princess Ines Marie Lilian Silvia, Duchess of Västerbotten.
Shortly afterwards, the royal court of Sweden clarified the mistake and said: “The King is very sorry that he said the wrong name. The reason is that the names were kept secret until just before the council, even from the King.” The spokesperson added: “He did not feel that he said the wrong name when he read the names, but he understood that later.”
Princess Ines, who was dressed in a £26 strawberry onesie from British brand The White Company in the photo, was born at 1.10pm on February 7 at Danderyd Hospital in Stockholm. In a statement, the Swedish Royal Court said: “The baby weighs 3645 grams and is 49 centimetres long. Prince Carl Philip was present at Danderyd Hospital throughout the birth.”
Ines is expected to be christened this summer. Tradition dictates that members of the royal family are baptised, around three or four months old, in an heirloom christening gown which dates back to the ceremony for Prince Gustaf Adolf in 1906. She has not been given a HRH title and will instead be a duchess, following the King’s changes to the Royal House in 2019.
Sofia announced in September that she was expecting her fourth child while attending the wedding of Princess Martha Louise of Norway and Durek Verrett. Last year, she spoke of scaling things back ahead of her 40th birthday due to the fact she was pregnant. Speaking to Vogue Scandinavia, she also reflected on dreaming of a family, admitting it was her “biggest goal in life.”
She told the outlet: “Both me and my husband come from a family of five – with three kids – so we thought that that would be a good number, and we felt quite satisfied with that. But, gratefully, there’s a bonus on the way. We feel very humble and grateful. It was maybe not in the plan, but now we are very, very excited. Especially the kids.”
Sofia found fame posing topless for the Swedish lads mag Slitz as well as a string of TV appearances before marrying into royalty. The model-turned-princess met Prince Carl in 2010 through a mutual friend after Sofia returned to Sweden from New York. Sofia and Carl announced their engagement in June 2014 and married in June 2015.
