ABBA - The never told story

What went wrong with ABBA, world's most succesful popgroup? While the group reached the impossible in popmusic, the private lives of Annifrid, Benny, Björn and Agnetha have become tragic. Instead of being two love couples, they are now two seperate ones. All four are going their own way and talk about the day the group will fall apart. For the first time the Swedish stars speak openly about their grief and expectations now that they seem to have drifted apart from each other.

Agnetha:
I cried when Björn re-married
She is a sweet, but lonely blue-eyed angel. The divorce hit her most of all four, Björn's ex-wife Agnetha Fältskog. Not long ago, the international press declared her 'woman with the most sexiest bottom of Europe'. That could give you a misleading impression of her image. The vulnerable side of her character reveals when she speaks about the emotional breakdown her divorce has caused.
Agnetha says: "You remember the pain and the fight and you say to yourself: Do I ever want to go through this again? Is is so frightning. If I'd find the perfect man, than I'd get married again. But it is hard, so very hard".
While she talks, she smokes one cigaret after the other and drinks litres of coffee in a living room above the ABBA studio.

I have fears.
Agnetha has pearlwhite teeth and her hair is curly. Whispering like a girl she says: "I'm a kind of person who is afraid of a lot of things. I have a fear of being among the people on the street. I can't go shopping. I can't go out and visit restaurants and bars. If I go out, people stare at me and I can't handle that. The fear of being on the street is my biggest fobic. I'm a very nervous person. I can handle some of the fears, like the fear of flying. I have a drink before my plane leaves. Take another one, when we are up in the sky and a last one before we land. I'm half drunk when we reach the place of destination, but I'm not worried about the flying anymore", says the 31 year-old singer.
Since her divorce from Björn, she can't control her fear of being out on the street. A good friend of Agnetha said that she completely focussed on her two little children since she got divorced. "It is as if she is punishing herself for something. She never goes out. Her whole life is based on working and the children".

No boyfriend
Agnetha: "Swedish papers always write untrue stories about me, so I know that no-one will ever believe me. Truly, I don't have a boyfriend. I often sit at home alone with my children. I read a lot and like to compose songs, I'd love to sing one day". "Of course, I meet men", she says. "And if a man says that I'm pretty or sexy, because he really finds that, than I don't have nothing against that. The thing is that I cannot agree with him. I don't find myself beautiful or sexy. I don't rely on that, but I have confidence in my character. I think I'm intelligent. Men seem to be impressed by the fact that I'm quite bright. They are also discouraged because they know that I managed to build up a career all by myself. I don't know why. They should be proud of my career, but they are not".

Sorrow
Agnetha obviously still has a lot of grief about her divorce. "I went through a horrible, painful depression. Knowing that I had to go further alone made me crazy. Björn always cared for everything, because we were very young when we met, and then, all of a sudden, I had to learn to stand on my own two feet". It touched me when he met Lena, and cried when he re-married. I suffered. It was so strange that he had found someone else so soon".
Like the other ABBA-members, she knows that the day that the group falls apart will come soon. She has thought a lot about how her life would go on. "I'd like to be a filmstar", she confesses. "I hope that a director is interested in me" Other important part of Agnetha's life is being a mother of her two children Christian (3) and Linda (8). "To become a good mother, a woman has to have confidence in herself. And to feel confident I need a career. We stopped travelling with the group. We have done that for so many years. Look at the damage it has caused: we were two couples when ABBA took off, but now we are four individuals"

Björn
"I was a bachelor for only week"
Songwriter, singer and guitarist Björn Ulvaeus is reserved as always when it comes to discuss the intimate things of his private life. But only this time he is prepared to tell everyting to Privé, to set things right for ever.
Relaxed in ABBA's recording studio in Stockholm he speaks about the break-up with Agnetha. "If you talk with someone the way I talked with Agnetha, honestly trying to work things out and it doesn't work, then you know when it's time to stop. So we did. But we didn't give up that easy. It lasted about two years before we came to the conclusion that it was best to get a divorce."

Björn was jealous
"We first saw a psychiatrist and he convinced us that it was best we'd discuss our problems in an honest way. After two years of constantly speaking about our relationship, we were absolutely sure that we took the right decision, believe me. There weren't irritations, but of course tears came. We had been together for 13 years"! A mutual friend of the couple claims that Björn was an impossible person to live with. Agnetha couldn't do one thing right and he became more and more jealous. He didn't have a reason to be jealous. The moment when they divorced, their children were too young to know what was going on. They live with Agnetha, but they can see their father whenever they want. And that is almost daily.
Two years ago, Björn left the house, after having discussed the divorce with Agnetha, and moved to an appartment nearby. He was alone for only a very short time.

Lena was pregnant
He says: "I was a bachelor for only one week and then I met Lena". Lena is Björn's new wife and he proudly says that she is pregnant. I don't mind if it becomes a boy or a girl, as long as the baby is healthy. You know, I already have a son and a daughter. There's no rivalry between Agnetha and Lena. They have met and all three are good friends.
It was a stormy romance. He met Lena (32), who is a tv-personality in Stockholm, at a party that (ironically) was organised by Benny and Frida. Within 5 months, they were living together.
Björn and Agnetha may be divorced, but the group stays intact. However, for the first time Björn reveals that he thinks of stopping. "We don't have a financial reason anymore to go on. Each of us has enough money".

Fear of kidnapping
Björn (36) tells that there isn't much for him that he would do differently, if he would be able to live the past ten years anew. Still, there were problems, like last year, after a serious threat to kidnap Björn's children. ABBA's concert for German television had to be cancelled. "It was horrible", says Björn. "John Lennon had just been shot as we became aware of the dangers of being superstars. We tried to protect ourselves. The death of John Lennon hurt me deeply. Although I never met him, he inspired Benny and me to start writing songs. It felt as if I had lost a personal friend.
Björn stills loves writing songs. But with ABBA's end coming nearer, he has to think about the future. About what he would like to do. "I have a crazy idea", he says with twinkling eyes. "I'd love to write a play and to hear actors and actresses bringing my words to life".

Benny
"Mona is my new partner in life".
ABBA's other composer, Benny Andersson smokes and is nervous. His hands are shaking when he speaks about this divorce. He says: "I don't know how other people deal with it. Frida and I are still partners in ABBA, but we aren't love partners anymore". His marriage with Annifrid Lyngstad ended dramatically. One day, when Benny came home, he confessed that he had found an other woman. "Frida was devastated", said someone, who knows the members personally.
The new woman in Benny's life is Mona Noerklitt, a 37 year-old Swedish tv-personality. "Mona is my new partner in life", you can call it that way", says Benny. "Frida and I are still friends. I respect her and she respects me for what we can achieve musically".

The joy is gone
But that is not quite true. There is a clear tension between the two, but the joy from the early years is gone. Benny is very nervous. It is clear that he is very hit by the divorce. "We have asked ourselves if we would be able mentally to on on with ABBA after our divorce. But we thought that ABBA survived Björn and Agnetha's divorce, so the group would probably continue after our split up too". One feels, while talking with Benny, that he finds it more and more difficult to keep the motivation to go on with the group.

Living in a normal way
"We don't have any worries financially. All our dreams have come true. We love our musical creations and as long as we are able, we will keep making music. We will stop as soon as it isn't fun anymore. What we produce now isn't creative work. I know that we sell lots of records and make incredible money, but that means nothing at all. I love to create music - to make a melody out of nothing.
We never thought that we would be as big as we are now. After all, we are normal human beings, who try to live a normal life. We go to work every morning, have dinner in a restaurant a few times a week and at weekends you can find us on our boat. I think this all happened while we didn't have any influence on it". Like the other members, Benny sees that the end is coming near. He gives ABBA two years - or two albums.

"We are not angels"
The ABBA sound is created by the girls. "Björn and I may compose the songs, but the girls are the ones who bring in the sound. If you leave their voices out, it's not ABBA anymore". Regarding the latest album 'Super Trouper', of which millions were sold worldwide, it's interesting to know that Benny finds that the technique has been responsible for the progession of ABBA's sound. After a two-hours talk, three cups of coffee and a half pack of cigarettes he sums up his feelings about ABBA. "I don't think we have enough power as individual artists. I'm not even sure if ABBA has a certain power. No one would buy a VOLVO because ABBA tells them to. We are family people with strong family ties. Ten years ago, we got together to perform and we have maintained that for a decade now. We are not the angels people made us. We are normal people, with the same problems normal people have. The difference is that we are a group named ABBA".

Frida
"Divorcing was the only solution"
There's a new man in Annifrids life. But the recently divorced dark haired singer keeps him out of publicity. She introduced him to her ex-husband Benny, and, according Frida, all three are good friends. The flaiming red haired beauty denies that her new lover is her chauffeur Lars Blomberg. He is a rich Swedish businessman. "I've learned from the mistakes I have made in the past", she says. I don't want to saddle my new friend up with all the questions and publicity, so therefore I keep his name secret. However, everyone has to know that I'm in love and that Frida has a new boyfriend. He is not from the music business and I like that. He is a part of my life, but I realise that it is important to have interests outside the showbusiness also".
She has two children from her first marriage, Hans (18) and Liselotte (14). Her second marriage with ABBA's Benny Andersson stranded. Now she says: "Marriage is no longer important for me, love is". We have to wait to see what will happen. Does she want any more children? "Hans and Liselotte are almost grown-ups. I'm not sure whether I want to start it all over". Last February, Benny and Frida announced that they were getting a divorce and within 6 weeks, the new man entered Frida's life. Now that Benny and I are separated, we can work together much better. Our personal relationship is much more calm and relaxed now. We are good friends and like each other very much. In the end, it is not all sad what has happened. We just grew apart because of our different interests. We have always been honest with each other. We talked and talked and talked and came to the conclusion that divorcing was the only option.

An other love
The main reason for the divorce was the fact that Benny, after he had lived with Frida for 9 years and had been married to her for 4 years, had found a new love. When he told Frida about her, they started about splitting up. A good friend says: "To Frida it came completely unexpected and she was devastated. There was a lot of crying and talking, but a divorce seemed inevitable". Frida is more publicity shy than the other ABBA members. And more than the others, she feels being a victim of untrue, misinterpreted and made-up stories. "The way people think about us have more to do with their imagination than with us as people", she says. 'They only see the glamour side of us, our outfits, what we do, the things all these made-up stories tell'.

As a 13 year-old girl
"When I started, I wanted people to know me as a person. The image people had of me was so incorrect. But it doesn't bother me anymore. I feel safe and sure as I am. I don't feel the need to tell that to everyone". As a 13 year-old girl, Frida dreamt of being a big star. She got a little bit of hope that it might come true when ABBA recorded their first album. Now she is a superstar, an inspiration to Swedish girls to have the same wild and flaiming hairdo. She started painting it years ago and it is almost red now.

Worries about money
"The first time the group got on stage was in 1971 in a local restaurant", says Frida."We were extremely bad. The audience hated us and we thought we were crazy". Now the group is world famous, has sold for millions during those 6 years and every member is a multi-millionaire. Ironically, Frida still worries about money. "Every month, we have a meeting to discuss our investments", she says. "We take decisions unanimous. I can lay awake at night, thinking if I made the right decisions".
Years ago, when she was married to Ragnar Fredriksson - the father of her two children - the marriage was destined to be a traditional one. A life being a wife and mother. At night, she sang in local cabaret groups, but her life was mainly her family. Now she says: "I would never have survived". Privé talked with Frida openly for two days. "I take the risk", she says. "But maybe this time, people will get to know the real me". Frida seems willing to show her audience more of her innerself. The truth about her as a person.

© Privé - 1981

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