Princess Sofia Stuns at Daughter’s Christening, Years After Facing ‘Hate Storm’ for Dating Prince Carl Philip

Princess Sofia of Sweden was the epitome of royal radiance as she celebrated her tenth wedding anniversary with Prince Carl Philip at a very special occasion: the royal christening of their fourth child and first daughter, Princess Ines. However, life in the royal spotlight didn’t start out easily.

Before joining the Swedish royal family with her 2013 wedding to King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia’s son, Sofia Hellqvist first stepped into the public eye as a model. Her photo shoot for Swedish magazine Slitz, for which she wore just a bikini bottom and a boa constrictor, landed her a spot on the country’s reality show Paradise Hotel, where she lasted until the final round of the competition.

In 2010, the Swedish Royal Court confirmed that Prince Carl Philip and Sofia were dating — an announcement that made Sofia the target of online harassment.

Sofia explained in a 2018 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. 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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The royal couple turned her negative experience into a force for good, using the Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia Foundation to combat hate speech and online bullying.

“I was an 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,” Princess Sofia said in the 2018 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.”

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

Princess Sofia, now 40, and Prince Carl Philip, now 46, married on June 13, 2015, and they have been a key part of the Swedish royal family in the years since, working on behalf of King Carl Gustaf and the monarchy. They also went on to have three sons — Prince Alexander, 9, Prince Gabriel, 7, Prince Julian, 4 — before welcoming their fourth child and first daughter, Princess Ines, on Feb. 7.

The royal couple was supported by King Carl Gustaf, Queen Silvia and Prince Carl Philip’s sisters, Crown Princess Victoria and Princess Madeleine, plus their husbands and children, at Ines’ baptism on Friday. In another sweet family connection, they even tapped their 13-year-old niece Princess Estelle, the daughter of Crown Princess Victoria and second in the line of succession to the throne, to be a godmother to their baby girl.

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Celebrating their 10 years of marriage in an Instagram post this week, the couple shared a video that featured nine images showing intimate glimpses of their nuptials set to Enya’s song “Athair Ar Neamh.”

They captioned the reel, “Tomorrow we celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. On June 13, 2015 we got married❤️ We are so grateful for the joy and warmth that met us that day and has continued throughout these ten years. Now we have four wonderful children, and tomorrow we are christening our little Ines.”