STOCKHOLM, Sweden – In a book to be published Monday, iconoclastic filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (search) reveals that he fathered a daughter outside of one of his five marriages, a secret he had kept for 45 years, his publisher said.
Bergman, 86, who is widely considered one of cinema's greatest directors, writes in the book he is the father of Maria von Rosen (search), whose mother Ingrid von Rosen later married Bergman 12 years after the girl was born, Susanne Nystroem, a spokeswoman for Norstedt's publishing house in Stockholm, told The Associated Press on Friday.
The book, which is co-authored by Bergman and Maria von Rosen, consists of their respective diary entries written around the time Ingrid von Rosen died of cancer in 1995, after a 24-year marriage to Bergman. It is called "Tre dagboecker," or "Three diaries."
In the foreword to the book, Bergman writes that he met Ingrid von Rosen in 1957 and had an on-and-off affair with her until 1969, according to excerpts published in Swedish newspapers. During that period, Bergman went through two marriages, with Gun Grut and Kabi Laretei. He also had an affair with actress Liv Ullmann (search).
Von Rosen was born in 1959, the same year Bergman divorced Grut and married Laretei. Bergman did not tell Maria he was her father until she was 22, he writes.
Bergman married Ingrid von Rosen in 1971. He has been married five times, and has eight other children, including a daughter with Liv Ullmann. Before the book, he never publicly revealed that he was Maria's father.
Nystroem said the book is likely to be translated into several languages, but it was still unclear which ones.
While theater is the backbone of his artistic career, Bergman's involvement in films has endeared him to cinema lovers. He won three Oscars in the best foreign film category, the last in 1983 for "Fanny and Alexander." His 1957 film "The Seventh Seal" contains one of cinema's most famous scenes — a knight playing chess with the shrouded figure of "death."