Sweden's Princess Madeleine Wins $540,000 in Libel Award

The year 2010 was a tough one for Sweden's Princess Madeleine, but 2011 is looking up for the glamorous young royal.

She has just been granted more than half a million dollars in a libel award from a string of German newspapers.

Germany's supreme court on Wednesday confirmed an earlier ruling that several newspapers run by the Klambt publishing house must pay the 28-year-old princess the equivalent of $540,000 for a series of articles. The stories, printed between 2000 and 2004, included a wide range of false details about the princess's private life, including claims that she was pregnant and planning to marry, TheLocal.se and Baltic News Network reported.

The royal family has already said that the money will be given to charity.

The youngest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia, Madeleine is third in line to the Swedish throne. And she's had a rough year.

In August 2009, the royal court announced Madeleine's engagement to her longtime boyfriend, Stockholm lawyer Jonas Bergstrom. But the engagement was called off in April after a former Norwegian handball star, Tora Uppstrom Berg, went public with claims that she had had an affair with Bergstrom.

Madeleine fled to the United States, but had to return to Sweden in June and put on a brave face for the wedding of her older sister, Crown Princess Victoria, to former personal trainer Daniel Westling.

After the wedding, Madeleine returned to New York, where she works for the World Childhood Foundation, a grant-giving organization established by her mother. She's been seen in the company of Greek playboy Stavros Niarchos (Paris Hilton's ex) and New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, a fellow Swede.

New York media have more recently linked the princess to American financial adviser Chris O'Neill, son of socialite Eva O'Neill.