Marriage
In the fall of 1959, Birgitta moved to Munich, Germany, to study German. Here she met Prince Johann Georg of Hohenzollern at a cocktail party. Their engagement was announced on 15 December 1960.
The couple were married in a civil ceremony in the Hall of State of the Royal Palace of Stockholm on 25 May 1961. The bride's grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, had hoped for a Lutheran ceremony, but Pope John XXIII forbade this. The bridesmaids were the bride’s sister Princess Christina and cousin Princess Benedikte of Denmark; the groomsmen were the bride's brother Crown Prince Carl Gustaf and her cousin Count Michael Bernadotte of Wisborg (son of Sigvard Bernadotte). She wore Empress Josephine's cameo diadem, thus becoming the first in a line of Swedish princesses to do so, as well as her great-grandmother Queen Sofia's lace veil which was also worn by her mother, Princess Sibylla, on her wedding day in 1932.
A Catholic ceremony was held at Sankt Johann Church at the groom's family seat of Sigmaringen, Germany, on 30 May 1961. Birgitta applied to convert to Catholicism when she married the Hohenzollern prince, but her application was rejected in wording which questioned her spiritual commitment to the change.
The couple had three children:
Prince Carl Christian Friedrich Johannes Meinrad Maria Hubertus Edmund of Hohenzollern (born 5 April 1962 in Munich, Germany), married Nicole Helene Neschitsch (born 22 January 1968 in Munich) on 26 July 1999 in Kreuzpullach. They have one son:
Prince Nicolas Johann Georg Maria of Hohenzollern (born 22 November 1999)
Princess Désirée Margareta Victoria Louise Sibylla Katharina Maria of Hohenzollern (born 27 November 1963 in Munich). She married Heinrich Franz Josef Georg Maria Reichsgraf (Imperial Count) zu Ortenburg (born 11 October 1956 in Bamberg) on 21 September 1998 in Weitramsdorf. They had three children before divorcing in 2002. Then she married Eckbert Georg Klaus von Bohlen und Halbach (born 24 March 1956)
Hereditary Count Carl-Theodor Georg Philipp Maria zu Ortenburg (born 21 February 1992 in Lichtenfels)
Count Frederik-Hubertus Ferdinand Maria zu Ortenburg (born 7 February 1995 in Lichtenfels)
Countess Carolina Maria Franziska Christina Stephanie zu Ortenburg (born 23 March 1997)
Prince Hubertus Gustav Adolf Veit Georg Meinrad Maria Alexander of Hohenzollern (born 10 June 1966 in Munich), who served as page boy at the 1976 wedding of his uncle, King Carl XVI Gustaf. He married Uta Maria König (born 25 February 1964 in Trier). They had two children:
Prince Lennart Carl Christian of Hohenzollern (10 January 2001 – 14 January 2001)
Princess Vivianne of Hohenzollern (born May 2009)
Birgitta and Johann Georg separated in 1990, although they remained married. She moved to the island of Mallorca in Spain in the 1990s, while her husband continued to live in Munich until his death in 2016.
The Princess and her children were passed over for succession to the Swedish throne when subsequent absolute primogeniture was established in Sweden in 1979 and 1980, and then only included her brother's descendants and her uncle Prince Bertil. However, as the only one of her sisters to marry a man of princely status, Princess Birgitta retained her Swedish style of Royal Highness.
