Aftonbladet – February 8th 1992
GOTHENBURG.
This is what a super-happy Frida looks like. A Frida who works and does it so happily that she does it for free.
She even pays to do it.
It's about Annifrid Lyngstad and it's about the environment. It's also about a Frida who has found peace with herself after many years of searching. Peace after times of anxiety and chaos in her soul. Or as she says herself:
- Now I have found myself.
She works for the environmental movement "The Natural Step". She sits on the movement's management team and is chairwoman of the project group "Artists for the Environment". She arranges training days for the current 80 or so members.
It's basically a full-time job, but like many others within "The Natural Step", she doesn't have a salary. And when she travels to the headquarters in Stockholm for a week every month, she usually pays for her own travel and living expenses.
The rest of the time she does her work via computer, fax and telephone from her home in Switzerland.
46 years old and a multi-millionaire, she has started a new phase in her life. What happened?
Well, it didn't happen in one day. It's quite a long story actually.
Sitting as if in a glass ball
More than half of the seventies had passed, and Frida and Abba were at the absolute top.
- My girlhood dream had come true. But the higher I got towards the top, the smaller my world became. At the top there was no room for a normal life. You were sitting as if you were in a small glass ball far away from all ordinary life. You see ordinary life, you can sense it outside, but you can't reach it.
Frida experienced anxiety, chaos in her soul and began to search for something else. She became a vegetarian, she began to study philosophy, the history of religions. She began to search for a meaning in life. It wasn't enough to be one of the world's most popular artists. Then came the divorce with Benny and her life became a deep dive.
- The worst time of my life. Everything was terrible then.
Then the Abba era was over, and she moved out into the world. England, Switzerland. And she should feel a kind of freedom.
-I started to get distanced. Now I could fully devote myself to finding out who I was, what I wanted to do with my life. Money was no problem and even though Frida lets it be known that she felt small and trapped in an event she could not influence, she was smart. She had skin on her nose.
Declared for 43 million
Abba's million was invested by Stickan Andersson but Frida had an outside expert look at the deals and was advised: - Sell NOW!
And she did. When the crisis came with Abbas's money and Monark and all that, she was no longer involved. Among other things, she received 225 SEK each for her shares in Kuben. The others received 25 SEK.
She declared 43 million SEK in assets in her last Swedish tax return in 1983. How much does she have today? Double, triple after the golden eighties.
Well, you can't ask her about that. This private sector is PRIVATE. Or as she says herself:
- My integrity has ALWAYS been very high.
Yet she makes a much more open impression than during the ABBA era. And softer. And more confident. Gone is the dyed pop hair and trendy clothes.
Now she has her natural brown-red hair. She is soft and fresh. The makeup is light, and she looks younger than her 46 years. The clothes are tasty, but certainly not cheap.
She actually looks that elegant and expensively simple look that the upper class is so good at.
And of course she lives an upper-class life with connections to the international jet set.
Her partner Ruzzo Reuss is a prince, descended from one of those countless German princely families.
But his mother was Swedish and he studied at the Lundsberg boarding school in Värmland and is an old friend of our Swedish king. He himself is a trained architect and builds golf courses, among other things.
Frida wants to talk about the environment
Enough about this because he also belongs to the private sector.
- Now we're talking about the environment, says Frida with a certain sharpness.
Yeah, okay. How did it start then?
It started when she read an article in DN about acidification of forests a few years ago and became extremely involved. The management of "The Natural Step" found out about it and got in touch. And then it has been rolling on. And she is deeply, deeply involved. The words fly out of her mouth as soon as the environment comes up.
Sweden is good, but why are we closing so many railways? In Switzerland, they are expanding the railways so that no village is more than a kilometer from the station.
I take the train myself whenever I can. What about Abba? How does she view those days today?
I am proud. We were actually very, very good. And it is funny that our music now seems to be experiencing a renaissance.
Abba is a big part of my life. And as Abba Frida, I still have a status that is useful now that I am involved in environmental issues.
Tomorrow. What happens then?
Oh well, tomorrow... I'll take it one day at a time. And today I am... HAPPY.
--
Abba from the peak of its heyday in 1980. Annifrid's girlish dreams had come true Photo: CAMERA PRESS in.
--
Name: Annifrid Lyngstad
Family: Partner Prince Ruzzo Reuss and his fifteen-year-old twins. She herself has two children from her first marriage. Before her marriage to Benny Andersson.
Lives: House in Mallorca, residence in Switzerland.
Car: Saab, drives unleaded.
Smokes: ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Drinks: Moderately.
Wealth: Last Swedish tax return 1983: 43 million. Probably significantly more today.
BOSSE SANDSTRÖM
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"The divorce from Benny was the worst time of my life"
New job. New husband. Annifrid Lyngstad talks about the ABBA years, the divorce and her new life as an environmentalist.
Ruzzo Reuss, Frida's partner
-I was sitting like in a glass dome, far away from all ordinary life, says Annifrid Lyngstad about the time when ABBA was at its greatest. Outside the dome she could sense life, but she couldn't reach it. Today she is an environmentalist, still incredibly rich and living with Prince Ruzzo Reuss (small picture). Annifrid has important advice for everyone: Sort your garbage, join the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation and learn about environmental problems!
Photo: ERIK YNGVESSON, PILA PHOTO
---
This is how Annifrid Lyngstad's life has been:
At 25, my career started to take off, but it wasn't until I was 40 that my life took shape.
10 years. Good. My mother died when I was only two, so I was raised by my grandmother. But it was safe and good.
15 years: Good. Discovered music early. Was on stage at eleven. I was working as a vocalist already at thirteen.
20 years: Good. Had met my first husband and had a child. (The furniture dealer and leisure music Ragnar Fredriksson).
25 years: Very good. Had met Benny and my career started to take off in earnest.
30 years.: Very good. Abba was at the top and now all the girl’s dreams started to come true.
35 years: Terrible. The divorce from Benny was incredibly difficult. Biggest "dip" of my life. I didn't know where I stood.
40 years: Very good. Had met my current partner. Life was starting to take shape.
45 years: THE TOP. Wonderfully good.
You can pull the curve up much further than "Very good".
And it feels like it's getting better all the time. I try to live a clean life both in my soul and when I sort the garbage.
Today I finally feel a great peace.
https://www.reddit.com/r/ABBA/comments/1mdptjt/the_divorce_from_benny_was_the_worst_time_of_my/
