“We’re turning the page, much like you do in your newspapers, and look ahead instead,’’ he said.
The king appealed to reporters to leave the royal family in peace, “because we have certain duties to fulfill and we have work almost every day.’’
Rumors about the king’s private life have swirled around Sweden for years, but even the tabloids had refrained from putting them in print until the book “Carl XVI Gustaf — The Reluctant King,’’ which is being released this week.
Based mostly on anonymous sources, it paints an unflattering image of the king’s inner circle of friends, describing visits to underground nightclubs in the company of scantily clad women.
While tabloids have focused on the salacious details, more highbrow media have sought ways to report on the story without getting stuck in sleaze, for example by focusing on whether the head of state’s alleged nighttime activities exposed him to security risks.
“If you don’t write about it, it’s perceived as an attempt to silence information that could be important,’’ respected daily Dagens Nyheter wrote yesterday. “If you do write about it, you risk being accused of giving dignity to rumors and gossip.’’
The paper said it declined an offer to publish excerpts of the book before the release because it questioned the reliability and the relevance of the material.
Agneta Lindblom Hulthen, chairwoman of the Swedish Union of Journalists, said the book marked a watershed moment in royal reporting, opening up the royal family’s private lives to closer scrutiny.
The royal family is hugely popular in Sweden and media had refrained from publishing material about them that could be considered offensive by the readers.
When Princess Madeleine — the youngest of the king’s three children — broke off her engagement earlier this year, many media tiptoed around rumors that her fiance had cheated on her.
One of the book’s three authors, Thomas Sjoberg, brushed off questions about the reliability of the sources, saying they would be “willing to appear as witnesses in a trial’’ if necessary.
Anders Lettstrom, one of the king’s closest friends, told broadcaster TV4 that the book’s allegations are “speculations, falsifications, and slander and so there’s not much that is correct.’’
