Benny & Frida tell all about their divorce

In Expressen May 20, 1981 this article appeared

BENNY: We are no angels.

Benny was nervous, His hands were shaking. His hand never  stopped trembling and he was costantly fiddling with his cigarrets.
     He said:
     - I don't know how other peole deal with things like this. Frida and I are still friends and I'm still a member of ABBA. We are still good friends, but we are not married anymore.
     Benny's divorce from  toAnni-Frid Lyngsa was something that happed dramatically quickly a lot of their friends have told us.
     - Benny just cam home one day and said that he had met someone else.
     Frida was devestated. For one spceial reason.
     The myserious new woman in Benny's life is Mona Nörklit, 37 year old TV-employee.

     Benny laugs:

     - Mona is my new woman, you can all her that.

     - Frida and I are still friends. She  respects me and what we can do muscially together.'

BENNY MOST AFFECTED

But it's not the complete truth. There are no obvious disagreements beween Frídda & Benny, but there's is no laugher and joking around like it was back in the good old days.

     He is the most affected person in all this drama.

     - We discussed what was going to remain a the group in spite of all we hav been through. We decided to stay togeher for the sake of the music.

     - We are fond of what we are doing musically and we we will be able to cope with this as long as we all feel comfortable.

NORMAL PEOPLE

     - Sure, we know what we ae doing isn't art. I know we sell a h*ll of a lot of records and we are earning incredible sums of money for doing that. But that doesn't mean that much, what we find pleasure and joy in in is writing and arranging  good songs.

    - I can't imagie myself at example 45 years old dancing around the stag with a beerbelly, TheABBA-sound are  the girls. If you take then out of the eqaution then ABBA couldn't exist.

     - We are more or less homebodies and what keeps us grounded are the children. We are normal human beings. We have the same problem a lot of other people have.

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ANNI-FRID: - I'm in love with another guy

Frida has a new boyfriend. She reveals that "he is a rich Swedish businessman".

     -  I hav learnt from my mistakes, my new husband is not going to be forced into the media frenzy. And that is why I can't  tell you who he is.  He is not part of the music business, soemething I appreciate a whole lot.

     - He is part of my life now, but it's important to develop interests outside of the music business.

    - Marriage is important to me, but love is more important. Marriage is no longer as important to me, but love is. We will se what happens.

     - Any more children?

      - I'm not sure I want to start all over again.

About her divoce from Benny Andersson she says:

     - Now that Benny and I have broken up, we are able to work much better together.

     - Our relationsip is not as intsense as it was, but we are still in contact. We have chosen to be competely honest with each other. We have alawys been very honest about relationship and after long and hard talks we decided to to go our separate ways.

WE HAD DIFFERENT INTERESTS

     - We simply grew out of each other. It came down to our different goals in life.

     - We have always been honest and talked about everything. We talked and talked and finally we agreed that a divorce would be the best solution.

     - There was a lot of tears and a lot of discussions. But there was no way back. Breaking up became a necessity.

     - People look at us with a way that has to do with their own imagination. It has very little to do with what is really going on between us.

ALL THREE GOOD FRIENDS

Frida tells us that she has introduced her new boyfriend to Benny and that all three of them are good friends now. Today Frida says that she is 'safe and secure'.

      - When I started (my career) I thought it would be nice if the audience knew me as an individual.

     - Their image of me was wrong. But that is somethings that doesn't bother me anymore. There is, however, something, how strange it might sound, worries Frida and that is money.

     - Once a month we have a boardmeeting discussing finances. We all have to agree on every decision, I'm worried that we won't make the right decisions.