Faelstog released a solo album in 1987, but since then she has been determined to stay out of the limelight.

She now lives in a Stockholm suburb with her two children, whose father is her ex-husband and ex-Abba bandmate Bjorn Ullvaeus.

But she has broken her silence for a Swedish TV documentary, to be broadcast on 26 May.

"For a 10-year period I have neither played nor sung nor listened to music. Silence has been a horrible necessity," she said.

Talking about her Abba career, she says: "It was horrible sometimes. It was fever, it was hysteria, it was sweaty, obsessed crowds.

"I felt like they would take hold of me and I would never be able to get away."

But she is still determined to stay out of the public eye. Swedish newspaper Expressen reported that she did not allow the documentary's producers to record her remarks on camera.