In a rare and emotional new interview from her quiet home in Switzerland, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, the now 78-year-old legend and one-quarter of ABBA, has finally broken her silence — revealing the long-hidden truth behind her extraordinary rise to fame, the private pain she carried for years, and the real reason she withdrew from public life for nearly four decades.
To millions, she was “Frida,” the fiery redhead whose powerful harmonies helped make “Dancing Queen” and “Mamma Mia” eternal anthems of joy. But behind the glamour, she lived a story shaped by tragedy, identity, and survival — one she has rarely spoken about until now.
“I was born in the wrong place, at the wrong time,” she said quietly. Born in Norway in 1945, just after World War II, Frida’s very existence was controversial. Her father was a German soldier, and her mother was a Norwegian woman who fell in love during the Nazi occupation. After the war, children like her were labeled “war babies” — shunned, bullied, and treated as outcasts. “My mother and grandmother had to flee to Sweden when I was still an infant,” she revealed. “They just wanted to save my life.”
Tragically, her mother died when Frida was only two, leaving her to be raised by her grandmother in hardship and uncertainty. “That’s where my strength came from,” she said. “When you’ve had everything taken from you as a child, you learn to build your own world out of music.”
That world — and her golden voice — eventually led her to Stockholm, where fate introduced her to Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, and Agnetha Fältskog. Together they became ABBA, a name that would echo through history. “ABBA saved me,” she admitted. “It gave me purpose, friendship, and a family I never thought I’d have.”
But when the fame faded, and the world moved on, Frida retreated. After the death of her beloved daughter Ann Lise-Lotte in 1998, followed by the passing of her husband Prince Heinrich Ruzzo Reuss of Plauen, she withdrew from the public eye completely. “The stage lights went out,” she said softly, “and I had to learn to live in the dark again.”
Now, years later, Frida lives quietly among the mountains, surrounded by music, painting, and faith. “I didn’t disappear,” she explained. “I simply chose peace.”
For fans who have wondered for decades where she went, her words offer both sorrow and serenity. “I’ve sung the happiest songs in the world,” she smiled, “but behind them was a woman who had to survive first.”
And perhaps that is the truest story of Anni-Frid Lyngstad — not just the voice of ABBA, but the heart that endured everything, and still found a way to sing.
