Swedish Princess Madeleine Engaged To British-American Banker Christopher O'Neill

Sweden's Princess Madeleine and her British-American boyfriend, Christopher O'Neill, announced their engagement on the royal palace website Thursday.

The two shared the details of their engagement in a video recorded Wednesday at the Drottningholm Palace, outside Stockholm.

“Chris proposed to me in New York at the start of October, and we are very happy,” Madeleine said in Swedish. She also described the proposal as “very romantic and intimate.”

“Madeleine and I have known each other for two years, and I recently summoned up the courage to ask her to marry me. Thankfully, she said yes,” O’Neill added.

He also spoke a little in Swedish, explaining that he is trying to learn the language, “but it’s difficult.”

Madeleine, 30, is the youngest of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia’s three children and is fourth in line to the throne, according to the AP. The princess lives and works in New York for the World Childhood Foundation, a nonprofit founded by her mother.

Madeleine moved to New York in 2010, shortly after she ended her engagement to Lawyer Jonas Bergstrom, whom she dated for eight years. The relationship ended after Bergstrom had an affair with a 21-year-old woman at a ski resort in 2009, according to the Daily Mail.

She and O'Neill, 38, say they met through mutual friends. The two were spotted at the Central Park Boathouse in early 2011, when rumors of their relationship began. According to Madeleine, they were friends first, and a relationship developed over time.

O’Neill said of Madeleine, “I immediately felt something special with Madeleine,” while Madeleine said of O’Neill, “I appreciate Chris for his warmth and his humor. He has a very big heart and he manages to make everyone in his presence feel good. Christopher is a very thoughtful and generous person.”

Born in London, England, O’Neill holds dual American and British citizenship. He is a partner and head of research at Noster Capital, a hedge fund with offices in London and New York.

Madeleine says the wedding is planned for summer 2013 in Sweden, and that more details will be released later.

The engagement announcement follows the wedding of Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg to Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy on Saturday at the tiny duchy’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

Madeleine’s sister, Crown Princess Victoria, married her former fitness trainer Daniel Westling in 2010. The couple’s daughter, Princess Estelle, was born in February 2012.