Story, October 1979: Agnetha is always welcome to have a good cry with Anni-Frid

The envy that Anni-Frid once felt towards the blonde, pretty Agnetha has turned into compassion. All of a sudden, the ABBA singers have become good friends because of Agnetha's problems.

"It's always Agnetha, Agnetha, Agnetha! I've had it!" Anni-Frid once cried out, green with envy, when she read a review of their concert, the morning after ABBA had performed in England. In the newspaper it was written for the umpteenth time how attractive the blonde singer of ABBA, Agnetha, is. Meanwhile they devoted only one sentence to the dark-haired Anni-Frid: that she had an outstanding voice as well.
Until recently, falling-outs like these - fuelled by envy - occured regularly, and they obviously put their mark on the atmosphere in the group. But it was understandable too. It was extremely frustrating for Anni-Frid that the sexy looks of her blonde colleague always get a lot of praise. Because she is an illegitimate child and she was raised by her grandmother, Anni-Frid has had to deal with feelings of inferiority and these feelings only increased because of ABBA's success.
But last year, Anni-Frid's feelings of envy towards Agnetha suddenly turned into feelings of deep compassion. Frida (like she is called in short) got these feelings of deep compassion when her blonde colleague divorced from Björn. Due to the fact that the ABBA members are often in each other's company day and night, Frida and her husband Benny have witnessed up close how Agnetha and Björn drifted apart.
Frida: "It was awful seeing it happen without being able to do something about it. We saw how desperately Agnetha tried everything to save her marriage, but unfortunately she and Björn had grown apart too much already to patch things up. Björn is completely dedicated to music, while Agnetha prefers a cosy, homely kind of lifestyle. Things became increasingly painful between those two. It was terrible! When they finally decided to go their separate ways as friends, it was kind of a relief for all of us. A certain amount of tension disappeared."

In these very difficult times, Frida tried to look after and comfort Agnetha as much as possible. She knows very well from her own experience how miserable one can be when a marriage falls apart. Anni-Frid has gone through a divorce herself, before she found happiness with Benny. Because Anni-Frid knows the intense lonely feeling that comes over you in such a situation, her envy turned into compassion. "A divorce is something you wouldn't want your worst enemy to go through," she once stated. Due to this, a solid friendship evolved between Anni-Frid and Agnetha. When Agnetha told her friend Frida a couple of months after her divorce from Björn that she was head over heels in love with ice hockey star Lars Eriksson, Frida was truly happy. "I hope you will be as happy with Lars as I am now with Benny," she said cordially. And she meant it from the bottom of her heart.
But unfortunately it wasn't to be. Eriksson, about whom it has to be said that he likes to be the centre of attention, has left Agnetha's mansion in Sweden's Stockholm again. He couldn't deal with the fact that his famous girlfriend got a lot more attention than he did.

When Eriksson broke off his relationship with Agnetha, the blonde singer was sadder than ever. She loved the 29-year-old sportsman and she had high hopes that she would be happy with him. And even this time, it was Anni-Frid who was there for her right away to comfort her. "You can always call on us if you are having a bad time," she said. "Just call me when you want to have a good cry. Day or night."
Anni-Frid: "This is simply a very difficult time for Agnetha. But I'm positive that she will see it through. She just has to bite the bullet. I'm sure she will eventually find someone who will make her happy."
Isn't there any possibility that Agnetha and Björn will get back together again? "Oh no," Anni-Frid replied resolutely. "That will never happen. Thankfully they are still good friends, but there is not a bit of love between them any longer."