- .Madeleine married New York banker O'Neill in Stockholm on June 8
- .The princess is third in line to the Swedish throne
Sweden's Royal Palace says Princess Madeleine and her husband, New York banker Christopher O'Neill, are expecting their first child in March.
Madeleine, the younger sister of Crown Princess Victoria, is third in line to the Swedish throne. She and Mr O'Neill got married in Stockholm on June 8.
The announcement comes almost exactly 12 weeks after the fairytale ceremony, for which the 31-year-old wore a couture Valentino gown.
Parents-to-be: Sweden's Princess Madeleine and her husband, Christopher O'Neill, are expecting their first child in March
Sweden's one-time 'party princess' lives with her British-American husband, 39, in New York where she works for the World Childhood Foundation, a non-profit group founded by her mother, Queen Silvia.
The couple met after Princess Madeleine fled to the U.S. in 2010 with a broken heart.
She crossed the Atlantic following the breakdown of her first engagement to Swedish attorney Jonas Bergstrom amid speculation that he had cheated on her.
Rumours of a romance with Mr O'Neill first emerged in early 2011 when the pair were seen together at the Central Park Boathouse.
Royal family: Madeleine pictured in her engagement photo with British-born, U.S.-based banker Chris O'Neill. The couple are expecting their first child in March next year
A source told the New York Post at the time: 'She is always happy when she is with him.'
Madeleine says she and her husband were friends first, and a relationship blossomed over time.
'I appreciate Chris for his warmth and his humor,' she said. 'He has a very big heart and he manages to make everyone in his presence feel good. Christopher is a very thoughtful and generous person.
Mr O'Neill, however, says that 'from the very outset, I immediately felt something special with Madeleine.'
Insiders predicted an engagement last year when Crown Princess Victoria gave birth to a baby, Princess Estelle, and Mr O'Neill accompanied Madeleine to Estelle's baptism ceremony that May - a significant indicator, as partners of royals are usually not invited to such occasions unless they are officially engaged.
And they were spot on. The couple announced their engagement in October 2012, confirmed in a brief video clip posted on the royal website.
'Chris proposed to me in New York at the start of October, and we are very happy,' Madeleine said in the video, which was recorded Wednesday at the Drottningholm Palace outside Stockholm.
Low-key: The couple, pictured shortly before they announced their engagement, live in New York
Madeleine described the proposal as 'very romantic and intimate' but would not reveal anything beyond that.
'Madeleine and I have known each other for two years and I recently summoned up the courage to ask her to marry me. Thankfully she said yes,' Mr O'Neill said in English with a British accent.
He added a few words in Swedish, saying he was trying to learn the language 'but it is difficult.'
Mr O'Neill revealed that he had followed procedure and asked Madeline's father, the king, for his daughter's hand in marriage.
'I felt part of the family right from the very beginning,' he said. 'Madeleine's family is very warm and we have a very good time when we all see each other.'
In her sister's footsteps: Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria married her former fitness trainer Daniel Westling at a lavish ceremony in Stockholm in 2010. The couple had a baby, Princess Estelle, last year
Doting mother: Sweden's Princess Victoria pictured last year with baby Estelle, who is now set to get a little cousin in March
The couple's June wedding was attended by Duran Duran's John Taylor, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, Karl-Johan Persson - the chief executive of fashion company Hennes & Mauritz (H&M), and Roxette stars Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson.
Mr O'Neill chose not to hold a title after the wedding as he has elected to remain a private citizen and not be granted royal rank.
The palace said today that the pregnancy would not affect Madeleine's schedule this fall.
Sweden has a constitutional monarchy in which the royals primarily serve as figureheads. King Carl XVI Gustaf is the country's head of state, but his powers are limited to representative and ceremonial duties.
GRANDMA EVA'S OWN ROYAL CONNECTIONS...
Socialite: Chris O'Neill's mother, Eva Maria, is a glamorous triple divorcee who was once linked to Prince Charles
Chris O'Neill's German mother, Eva, 73, is a former girlfriend of Prince Charles, and made headlines in Britain in 2003 when she invited Charles and his then-mistress Camilla to the Amadeus festival, a high-society celebration of Mozart's music which she organises annually in Salzburg, Austria.
When the Prince arrived at the festival, Eva greeted him with a warm embrace and kiss - to the evident discomfort of Camilla, who would go on to marry Charles less than two years later.
Charles and Eva apparently met at a polo match and started an affair in 1986, when his marriage to Princess Diana was starting to break down.
One anecdote claimed that the couple were nearly caught in flagrante by Diana herself when she walked in to the changing room at the Guard's Polo Club in Windsor, where Charles and Eva were being intimate.
The story goes that Eva had to be 'bundled through a window' to stop the Princess discovering her husband's infidelity.
The Mail on Sunday even reported that Palace insiders encouraged Charles to rekindle his relationship with Eva, in an attempt to stop Camilla joining the Royal Family.
St James's Palace denied that the Prince had had a romantic relationship with Eva, while she told the Mail that she invited him to Salzburg 'because I know he is a classical music lover'.
But while triple divorcee Eva may never have been a royal bride herself, her own marital history has hardly been uneventful.
Her first husband was Wolfgang Schoeller, the German honorary consul to Indonesia, before she left him for an American cement magnate.
She then married Paul O'Neill, Chris's father, a leading banker.
A friend of Eva told the Mail that she even stole one of her husbands from Elizabeth Taylor.
He had apparently been dating the Hollywood icon and the two looked like they were headed to the altar, before Eva ended up joining a cruise party he had organised with friends.
The two hit it off so well that by the time the cruise was over they were engaged, and he stood Liz up at their next meeting.
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