Carl Johan Arthur was born on 31 October 1916 and was the youngest son of Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden and his first wife, Margaret of Connaught.
From birth, Carl Johan was a Prince of Sweden and was granted the title of Duke of Dalarna, however he had to renounce these titles so he could marry his first wife, Kerstin Wijkmark, the divorced editor of the Weekly Review in Sweden. The couple were married in Riverside Church, New York, on 19 February 1946, and the only member of his family to congratulate him was his uncle Prince Vilhelm. At that time it was forbidden for a Swedish royal to marry a commoner so the Swedish government could not grant him permission and Carl Johan accepted that with grace.
Carl Johan and Kerstin adopted two children, Christian and Monica, in the 1950s and they settled in New York City, where Carl Johan worked as a representative of the Anglo-Nordic Trading Company. Carl Johan was granted the title of Count Wisborg by Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg in 1951 and as a consequence he was entitled to use the style of Prince Bernadotte.
After Kerstin’s death in 1987, Carl Johan married Countess Gunnila Märtha Louise Wachtmeister af Johannishus on 29 September 1988 in Copenhagen. The daughter of Swedish aristocrats, Gunnila had been previously married to Carl-Herman Bussler who had died in 1988. When Carl Johan died on 5 May 2012, he was the last surviving great-grandchild of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.