Pop Foto, 1976: We've neglected our child!

An article published in 1976 (it says Linda is three years old), but I think the pics are from 1975.

Being a mother and father, what do you do when your own daughter thinks she doesn’t have a mummy or daddy anymore... just a nanny? Well, what do you do? You take a long holiday, the three of you! At least, that’s what Agnetha and Björn Ulvaeus did when they started to notice they were becoming strangers to their little Linda.

“I remember it as if it was yesterday,” says blonde ABBA-singer Agnetha. “After a tour, we had travelled all day to be with our little Linda again as soon as possible. It was already getting late when we finally arrived home. Our nanny had already put Linda to bed, but Björn and I just couldn’t wait to see her, so the three of us went to her nursery. Linda stood in her little bed. But when I took her in my arms and cuddled her, she started to cry! Björn tried to calm her, but she was terrified of us. We were strangers to her! It seemed as if she didn’t remember who we were, and hid her face against the shoulder of the nanny. I’d never been so startled in my life! Our own child didn’t recognize us anymore...”

Agnetha gives her little girl, that is running through the waves of the Mediterranean during our conversation, a hug and continues with her story. “When we recovered from the shock, we immediately called our manager and cancelled all our performances. We just had to get out, just the three of us. That’s how we came to Crete. Here we can get used to each other again, and here Linda started to call us mummy and daddy again!”

Agnetha and Björn are determined to never leave their daughter alone for such a long time again. “We’ve come to realize that we’ve neglected the little sweetheart. But that’s going to change! Even if it means we can perform a lot less, or even never again, from now on we will be real parents for Linda,” says Björn, while Agnetha and her cheerful daughter build a beautiful sandcastle on the hot sand. “With most artists, only the man or the woman is away from home a lot, so their child at least has one parent. But with us it’s different, of course. Linda is now three years old, she’s starting to talk, to think for herself, to ask questions and so on. You just have to be there as a parent! I want to be a good father, and Agnetha a good mother, so, one way or the other, Linda always comes first!”