A disturbing situation involving Tobias Forge, the mastermind behind GHOST, has come to light, as Swedish authorities investigate an alleged stalking case that escalated over several months.
According to Aftonbladet, a woman in her 40s has been charged with harassment after reportedly contacting Forge repeatedly between July and October of last year. The alleged behavior included persistent messages, payment requests, and letters — even after Forge blocked her across multiple platforms.
The situation took a more unsettling turn when the woman began sending registered mail. While Forge ignored most of the letters, he eventually opened the most recent one, which contained a mobile phone. Finding it suspicious, he chose not to keep it inside his home.
“I didn’t want to keep [the phone] in my home so I put it on the balcony before I handed it in to the police,” Tobias is quoted as saying in the preliminary investigation report (translated from Swedish). “I feel quite reserved around people trying to contact me, but over the years I’ve had about a dozen stalkers. However, no one has done anything as invasive and downright threatening as sending a mobile phone. It wouldn’t have been so good if I lived at a secret address, for example. With that phone, I reached my limit.”
Authorities allege that the woman initially contacted Forge through text messages and WhatsApp, often sending long messages praising him. After being blocked, she allegedly escalated her efforts by switching to physical mail. In addition, she is said to have sent multiple payment requests via Sweden’s Swish mobile payment system, each reportedly totaling 5,000 kronor (around $530).
Forge described the experience as both unsettling and invasive during his testimony.
He added: “I’ve had devoted pursuers before, most of them are pretty harmless, but there’s something about this that’s odd.”
The woman, however, claims a very different version of events. She reportedly told authorities that she and Forge met 16 years ago, have been in daily contact through messaging apps, and have even been engaged since September of last year. Despite these claims, she declined to provide any chat records to investigators.
Forge has firmly denied ever knowing the woman or having any form of relationship with her. He is not pursuing financial compensation, instead expressing a desire for the situation to simply come to an end.
“I don’t want to make her life worse,” he said. “I just want her to leave me alone and not hurt anyone else.”
Reports also indicate that the woman is facing additional charges involving other individuals, suggesting this may not be an isolated case.
Meanwhile, Forge has also been opening up about the future of GHOST, revealing that the band may soon take an extended break following the completion of their “Skeletour” in support of 2025’s Skeletá. Speaking on Full Metal Jackie’s nationally syndicated radio show, he explained that there are currently no firm plans moving forward.
When asked about life outside of music and whether he has hobbies or places he enjoys spending time when not working, Forge responded: “All the above. Yeah. One, I have my family. Duh. Of course, everybody knows that. I’ve had two kids waiting at home with my wife for 15 years, and maybe that says something about me that it wasn’t a pushing enough factor during those years. Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where not only do I need — I feel physically and mentally I need to be home, simply because they’re 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon. And then the most acute factor here is the fact… Imagine you being a house builder, and you draw up houses, great ideas, but you’re also doing the permits and you’re also doing the tiles and you’re building everything and you’re sewing up all that [s**t] and putting it all together. I don’t simply have an idea. And I’m out of tiles. I’m out of wood. I just don’t have it. So the only way for me to come up with a new idea and get some new inspiration is to just step away. It is as simple as that.
“But it doesn’t mean that I’m not doing anything,” he continued. “I have two film projects that I’m working on. Just before I left for tour, I was recording another album with another thing. So I have tons of stuff lined up for me [for] the coming years. And also hobbies that I have put aside a little, just because for the last 15 years GHOST has obviously been force majeure. Luckily, my family has been very supportive of that. They know that in order to sort of make this happen, I need to do this. And over the years I’ve been very worried about momentum and just keeping it going because I have so many ideas and I don’t wanna lose speed. And I just came to a point where I’m, like, I’m actually fine if the momentum is not there. It’s cool. I’m good. I feel good about that. If I lose it, okay.”
Asked whether his children fully grasp the scope of his career as a globally recognized musician, he said: “Of course. They’re 17. Of course they know what I’m doing. Of course they’re aware of… And we are very connected. We’re very good friends. We speak about anything. And they’re very aware of my thought processes and where I am, how I feel about things. And they’re big enough and vocalizing enough to be able to explain. And we can have a conversation about how they felt as kids, me being away a lot. But now they’re the ones sort of pushing me, like, ‘Yeah, it’s only three weeks left,’ whereas in the past it was always, like, when I was gonna be away for seven weeks or nine weeks, it was hard for them to fathom, of course, what that timeframe is. And there were a lot of moments where you had to sort of sneak out before they woke up and have one screaming child on the balcony, sort of, when you jump into the car. And that was not easy. But when you’re driven by a conviction, and I was convinced, and I am still convinced, that I did the right thing, of course. And luckily, now there’s no resentment that I know of me having done that. But now they’re the ones who are reasonable, and, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s do that when you come home.’ Which is really encouraging, but that again is just… Well, again, it just happened to coincide with where I am mentally in life. It just feels like a good time to sort of, like, ‘All right. When I come back, we’ll start this new chapter, this new reality.’”
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.