Ingmar Bergman 'switched at birth': report
Ingmar Bergman, the famed Swedish director who died in 2007, was not his mother's biological son, according to the results of an investigation by his niece published on Thursday.
DNA analysis carried out by Sweden's National Board of Forensic Medicine (Rättsmedicinalverket) shows that Bergman and his mother, Karin Bergman, are not biologically related, the Dagens Nyhter (DN) newspaper reports.
The revelations, published in a new book by Bergman's niece Veronica Ralston, stem from an investigation she carried out after reading a book by author Louise Tillberg published last year which Tillberg argued that her father and uncle were siblings of Ingmar Bergman born to Hedvig Tillberg (nee Sjöberg).
"I contacted the board of forensic medicine to see if it was possible to perform a DNA analysis to clarify this," Ralston told DN.
"I suggested that they could use stamps which Ingmar Bergman had licked and sent on letters and postcards to his parents and compare them with my DNA."
Following the analysis, the agency informed Ralston, the biological granddaughter of Karin Bergman, that she and her famous film director uncle were not biologically related.
Ralston's sensational findings are presented in "Kärleksbarnet och bortbytingen" ('The love child and the changeling'), in which the author also attempts to offer an explanation for what happened.
"When my grandmother Karin Berman gave birth to her son on July 14th, 1918, she had been very sick for a long period of time and it's possible the baby didn't survive," according to Ralston.
"But I haven't checked with the hospital in Uppsala if there are any records of a stillborn baby, so that is just speculation. But I think that is exactly what happened and that her husband Erik then switched the child with a baby that Hedvig Sjöberg had previously given birth to in Stockholm."
Editors Note: In a previous version of this article, Bergman's niece, Veronica Ralston was erroneously referred to as his granddaughter.
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DNA analysis carried out by Sweden's National Board of Forensic Medicine (Rättsmedicinalverket) shows that Bergman and his mother, Karin Bergman, are not biologically related, the Dagens Nyhter (DN) newspaper reports.
The revelations, published in a new book by Bergman's niece Veronica Ralston, stem from an investigation she carried out after reading a book by author Louise Tillberg published last year which Tillberg argued that her father and uncle were siblings of Ingmar Bergman born to Hedvig Tillberg (nee Sjöberg).
"I contacted the board of forensic medicine to see if it was possible to perform a DNA analysis to clarify this," Ralston told DN.
"I suggested that they could use stamps which Ingmar Bergman had licked and sent on letters and postcards to his parents and compare them with my DNA."
Following the analysis, the agency informed Ralston, the biological granddaughter of Karin Bergman, that she and her famous film director uncle were not biologically related.
Ralston's sensational findings are presented in "Kärleksbarnet och bortbytingen" ('The love child and the changeling'), in which the author also attempts to offer an explanation for what happened.
"When my grandmother Karin Berman gave birth to her son on July 14th, 1918, she had been very sick for a long period of time and it's possible the baby didn't survive," according to Ralston.
"But I haven't checked with the hospital in Uppsala if there are any records of a stillborn baby, so that is just speculation. But I think that is exactly what happened and that her husband Erik then switched the child with a baby that Hedvig Sjöberg had previously given birth to in Stockholm."
Editors Note: In a previous version of this article, Bergman's niece, Veronica Ralston was erroneously referred to as his granddaughter.
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