Anna Lindh’s son speaks publicly for the first time about his mother’s murder

David Lindh, the son of former Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has described in an interview with Dagens Nyheter how he concealed his identity for years after his mother’s assassination in 2003, when he was 13 years old.

“I always thought no one should find out who I am,” Lindh told the newspaper, marking the first time he has spoken in detail about the grief and isolation he experienced following the killing.

Lindh recalled the moment his father took his and his brother’s hands to tell them their mother had died. In the days that followed, he lay in her bed, paralysed by shock. “My strongest memory is lying there, staring at the ceiling. The sun was shining, but I couldn’t move. I thought, ‘You’re alone now, David. She’s gone,’” he said.

Returning to school after the murder, he found adults unable to act naturally around him. “It was hell dealing with them. No one could stay calm in my presence, and it made me so angry,” he said. For years, he avoided disclosing his parents’ identities, refusing interviews or memorial events. He grew distrustful of people who asked questions, determined to keep his background hidden.

A turning point came three years ago at a retreat in Dalarna, where he broke down, his body shaking uncontrollably. “It was like a surrender—something in me let go,” he said. Today, his hands still tremble when he thinks of his mother, but the feeling has changed. “It’s as if she comes to visit.”

Lindh remains reluctant to discuss Mijailo Mijailović, the man convicted of his mother’s murder. “I choose my words carefully now so I don’t say anything too harsh. But I think you lose part of your human worth when you commit such an act,” he said, acknowledging his mother would have disagreed. “She would have reminded me of the equal value of all people.”

Anna Lindh, Sweden’s foreign minister and a leading Social Democrat, was fatally stabbed on 10 September 2003 while shopping at the NK department store in central Stockholm.