Gullan Marianne, Princess Bernadotte, Countess of Wisborg (née Lindberg, later Tchang; born 15 July 1924), also known as Princess Marianne Bernadotte, is a Swedish actress, fashion icon and philanthropist who in 1961 married Sigvard Bernadotte, the second son of Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden. Since the death of Gunnila Bernadotte in 2016, she is the last surviving aunt of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. She is officially included in the Swedish royal family, and on 23 January 2022 she surpassed her late sister-in-law Princess Lilian, Duchess of Halland, as the longest-living member on record of the royal family with the age of 97 years and 192 days.
Bernadotte has been noted for her work supporting causes such as dyslexia, physical disabilities, and children's eye care and as a patron of the arts. She has been awarded two honorary doctorates.
Education and professional life
Having performed in her teens at a noted open-air theatre (Fredriksdalsteatern) in her home town, Bernadotte tried out for and was accepted by the Royal Dramatic Theatre's acting school the Royal Dramatic Training Academy and did their full drama course 1945-1948. Between semesters she worked as a bus hostess on tours to Germany and France. After finishing her education, she was employed as actress Marianne Lindberg at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm for eleven years, preferring challenging parts over glamorous ones. For her first of 25 parts on that stage, selected to act there as their only graduate that year, she played Annie in the Swedish version of Life With Father. Her directors included Olof Molander, Alf Sjöberg, Ingmar Bergman, Mimi Pollak and Göran Gentele, and some of the actors in her plays were Jarl Kulle, Inga Tidblad and Mai Zetterling. She also was in the motion picture Kulla Gulla in 1956 with Hugo Björne and appeared in two plays on Swedish television in 1957 and 1959. In her 1986 memoir she described her acting experience, writing for example: Along with your director and your fellow actors you find your way through to your part. You build up your own little world, a concentrate, where everyone invests of h-self to hold the pieces together and thus be able to offer the audience something whole.
The theatre was closed for renovation in 1956, and after leaving there Bernadotte was trained by the NK department store and took over their gift shop. A few years later she took courses in Cultural Communication, French and Art at Stockholm University, became the Swedish representative of Sotheby's and in 1970 studied gourmet cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. After her husband's reconciliation with her widowed father-in-law King Gustaf VI Adolf in the 1970s, she and the elderly Swedish king especially enjoyed cooking together.
In 1983 Marianne Bernadotte graduated as Bachelor of Arts in Art history at Stockholm University. Her academic papers included work on the glass artist and sculptor Edvin Öhrström.
In July 2014 she had good reviews after hosting the popular radio show Sommar on her 90th birthday.
High fashion
With her new husband Sigvard, Bernadotte met Pierre Balmain in Paris in 1962. She became particularly close and lifelong friends with Balmain and with his successor Erik Mortensen, and they as well as several other French houses of haute couture often for publicity dressed the easily fitted Bernadotte in their latest work.
In 1985 Marianne Bernadotte was named one of the 10 best dressed women in the world, by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture in Paris alongside Gina Lollobrigida, Princess Ira von Fürstenberg and Princess Gersende d'Orléans.
Bernadotte's taste in clothing is still appreciated and hailed by several of Sweden's top designers such as Pär Engsheden and Christer Lindarw. In 2017 Millesgården in Stockholm had a four-month exhibition called CHANEL BALMAIN DIOR MARIANNE BERNADOTTE - En stilikon with a large number of the most valuable and unique items in Bernadotte's high fashion wardrobe from the 1960s and on, mixed in with the museum's ancient nude and clothed statuary. The exhibition was opened by Bernadotte's grandniece Crown Princess Victoria who twenty years earlier also with Bernadotte had opened an exhibition on the late Sigvard Bernadotte's design at the National Museum of Fine Arts.
Philanthropy
Adhering to the concept of Noblesse oblige, since the 1960s Bernadotte has been deeply involved with concerns in the areas of physical handicaps, health, research and the arts.