Her Majesty Queen Silvia of Sweden has opened up about the death of her brother in an interview with TV4. In late October, it was announced that the Swedish Queen’s brother, Walther Sommerlath, had died at the age of 86. Sommerlath had been ill for a long time, and now the Queen has spoken out about the incident, dispelling rumours that he had died of Covid..
In a TV interview with Swedish TV4, Her Majesty said that her brother battled with Alzheimer’s. The Queen said: “Alzheimers is a terrible disease. It is painful. Gradually you lose your own consciousness. You do not find an answer or the right thing to say. You get annoyed. So it was very difficult to handle.”
Walther Sommerlath recently lived with the Swedish Royal Family at Drottningholm Castle. The Queen also lost her mother to Alzheimer’s, but says in the interview that her brother’s death was a completely new situation for her and she was very in doubt about how she should best deal with her brother’s illness. When asked how she has handled the grief after the loss, she said: “It may be a little too early to say. I do not know if I have handled it yet.”
After her mother became ill, The Queen became involved Alzheimer’s research and she established the Silviahemmet foundation in 1996. The foundation trains professionals in how to treat Alzheimer’s and other dementia diseases. The Queen’s mother, Alice Sommerlath, died in 1997. The Queen said: “I have now been working with these questions for 25 years, but it has been a completely new situation. Alzheimer’s is really something terrible, I must say.”
Walter Sommerlath was buried in a small ceremony with only close family present at the end of November. In attendance from the royal family were the Queen and King as well as Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel. Of the sibling group of four, only Silvia and her brother Ralf are still alive. Her brother, Jörg, died of cancer in February 2006 at the age of 64. The entire interview with Queen Silvia will be published in the programme Kungahuset 2020 which will be broadcast on TV4 on 25 December.
