Introduction
Coming Up Next
The Tragedy of Anni-Frid’s Family
Anni-Frid was the child of a wartime romance. Her mother, Synni, was seduced by German sergeant Alfred Haase in 1943—with a sack of potatoes, a highly valuable gift at the time in war-torn Norway, where food was scarce.
Their relationship continued until 1945, when Anni-Frid was born and Alfred was transferred back to Germany. However, as a young, unwed mother of a child fathered by a German soldier, Synni faced intense social stigma.
Shunned by those around her, Synni—along with baby Anni-Frid and her own mother—soon fled to Sweden to escape the judgment and hostility.
In Sweden, Synni worked as a waitress but tragically died of kidney failure at the age of just 21, when Anni-Frid was only two years old.
Raised by her grandmother, the future singing star endured a difficult and painful childhood. It was believed that she was the daughter of a German soldier who had drowned when his ship sank on the way back to Germany.
If not for ABBA, Anni-Frid might never have learned the truth beyond the stories she’d been told.
However, in 1977, the niece of Alfred Haase—an ABBA fan—read an interview in which Anni-Frid said she was the illegitimate daughter of a German soldier.
A meeting was arranged, and Alfred brought a bouquet of flowers. Together, they looked through old photos and compared physical features. But the reunion was brief.
“It would have been different if I were a child. But it’s hard to gain a father when you’re already 32,” Anni-Frid once shared.
For many years afterward, Anni-Frid was prone to depression.
Her path to ABBA began in 1969, when she met Benny. At the time, Anni-Frid had already been married and divorced, and both she and Benny each had two children from previous relationships.
Like Agnetha and Björn the year before, Anni-Frid and Benny described their divorce as a “happy divorce.” But in truth, she was deeply hurt—devastated by being left for another woman.
And so, ABBA could no longer continue. Their image gradually faded, and after selling 350 million records, the band members each went their separate ways.
For many years following ABBA’s breakup, Anni-Frid continued to search for personal happiness.
She moved to London for a short time before settling in Switzerland, where in 1992 she married a member of a German royal family, becoming Princess Anni-Frid of Reuss.
But tragedy continued to follow her. In 1998, Anni-Frid’s daughter—then 30 years old—was killed in a car accident in New York.
The following year, she lost her third husband—Heinrich Ruzzo Prinz Reuss von Plauen—to cancer.
In the months that followed, Anni-Frid withdrew from public life and later shared that her faith in God had helped her cope with the pain.
However, in recent years, she has found peace and contentment, living happily in the Swiss mountain resort town of Zermatt with WHSmith heir—Viscount Hambleden.
And the Tragedy of Agnetha
When Agnetha sang the alluring lyrics of ABBA’s chart-topping hit Dancing Queen—”Anyone could be that guy”—she never imagined that, years later, she would find herself in a relationship with a poor, overweight man.
In reality, 25 years ago, Gert van der Graaf—a man who worked at a water pump factory—became the man of her dreams.
It began with a fan’s obsession. Gert van der Graaf followed Agnetha with intense devotion until eventually—at a time when she was at her lowest, overwhelmed by a troubled life—he became her secret boyfriend.
During the 1980s and early 1990s, Agnetha suffered a series of personal tragedies: two divorces (first from bandmate Björn Ulvaeus, then from lawyer Tomas Sonnenfeld), her mother’s suicide, which was followed shortly after by her father’s death.
She was later involved in a horrific road accident, during which she was thrown from the window of a tour bus. The incident left her with agoraphobia and ongoing depression.
As a result, Agnetha found comfort in the company of a simple man—someone who seemed to want nothing more than to admire her beauty and gaze at her with awe.
But eventually, Agnetha came to the painful realization that Gert’s attachment to her was an unhealthy obsession. She felt she had made a terrible mistake by returning his affection and tried to distance herself from him.
However, Gert refused to accept Agnetha’s rejection and began pursuing the singer once again—this time with a more threatening presence.
He bombarded Agnetha with disturbing letters, suddenly appeared at her kitchen window, and followed her while she was out walking or shopping.
Terrified, Agnetha reported him to the police. Gert was convicted of harassment, placed under a restraining order, and deported to the Netherlands twice, in 2000 and 2003.
The entire disturbing episode later became the basis for the 2023 Prime Video documentary Take A Chance.
Whatever the truth may be, Gert claimed that they had a romantic relationship that lasted nearly two years, from 1997 to 1999.
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