STOCKHOLM (AP) — Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria gave birth to her first child Thursday, a baby girl who will one day become queen, prompting banner headlines and 21-gun salutes across the country.
The news gave the royal family a respite from the negative headlines that have dogged King Carl XVI Gustaf, Victoria’s father, after a 2010 book made scandalous claims about his private life.
The girl, who is second in line to the Swedish throne, was born at 4:26 a.m. (0326 GMT), said Victoria’s husband, Prince Daniel. She was 20 inches (51 cms) long and weighed 7.23 pounds (3.28 kg).
Both the crown princess and the baby are “doing very well,” an emotional Daniel told reporters who had waited for the announcement all night at the Karolinska University Hospital in the Stockholm suburb of Solna.
“My feelings are a bit all over the place,” he said, switching to English mid-sentence.
“When I left the room, the little princess was sleeping on her mother’s chest and they were looking very cozy,” he continued in Swedish, folding his arms as if cradling a baby.
Victoria, 34, is next in line to the throne held by her father since 1973. Sweden changed the constitution in 1980, three years after Victoria was born, to allow the eldest heir to inherit the throne regardless of gender. Before that female heirs were excluded.
Victoria married Daniel, 38, a commoner and her former personal trainer, in June 2010.
Swedish media proclaimed the royal birth with bold headlines and live broadcasts Thursday from the hospital, where dozens of reporters gathered after the Royal Court confirmed after midnight that Victoria had checked into the hospital.
The court announced the birth on its website and on its Facebook page, where it also published the first picture of the couple carrying the newborn in a baby carrier. It said the family returned to Haga Castle later Thursday and the king plans to announce the girl’s name at a ceremony Friday.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt congratulated the couple, noting that Sweden stands before “a new era of