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(CNN) - Greta Thunberg's father said he initially did not support his daughter's climate activism, calling it a "bad idea," but his opinion changed when he saw how happy he was doing.
In an interview on BBC Radio's "Today" program, Svante Thunberg revealed that by missing school and organizing sitting outside the Swedish Parliament on Fridays, Greta was not only fighting against climate change but also against paralyzing depression that He had harassed her for up to four years.
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Greta and his father, Svante Thunberg.
"She stopped talking, stopped eating and all these things," Svante Thunberg said about Greta's illness period, speaking on a program edited about the 16-year-old activist.
“She stopped going to school. Basically he was at home for a year, he didn't eat for three months, ”said the 50-year-old man about what he described as“ the final nightmare as a father ”.
Thunberg and his wife, opera singer Malena Ernman, stopped working to take care of Greta, who at that time only spoke to them, their sister and one of their teachers at school.
Then, when he expressed his desire to become an activist, both parents said "clearly that we would not support him," worried that she "would be on the front line with such a big issue as climate change."
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Perspective change
But Greta's strikes not only created a powerful global movement, but also helped change their perspective.
During his first sitting outside the Swedish Parliament, he began answering questions from journalists as they approached her. On the third day, he ate a Thai vegan dish that someone had handed him.
"I can't explain what change meant to her and to us," Thunberg said. "And she could do things she hadn't done before."
"I can see that Greta is very happy to do this," he added.
During the BBC's extensive interview with Mishal Husain, Thunberg rejected criticism that he and his wife pushed Greta to become an activist.
"We are not climate activists, we never were," he said, adding that Greta used to call them "hypocrites" for not taking the climate problem seriously.
"Obviously we had no idea (about) the climate crisis and she basically thought we were great hypocrites," said the activist's father, adding that he and his wife were defenders of human rights and refugees.
"So Greta said: 'Whose human rights are they defending?" He said.
Thunberg said he was "without arguments" against climate activism and began supporting Greta's initiatives. His wife decided to stop going by plane to opera commitments and he became vegan, but it wasn't because of the climate crisis, he added.
"I didn't do it to save the weather, I did it to save my daughter," he said.
Greta Thunberg