The granddaughter of Swedish opera singer Folke Jonsson, Jonsson was born in Sollentuna, Stockholm County.Her parents divorced amicably in 1975 when her mother left to be with her lover Michael Brodie in the Netherlands;Ulrika was eight years old. She lived with her father until the age of 12 when her mother suggested that at that age she needed a mother's guidance. Jonsson accepted and moved to Buckinghamshire, England in 1979 where she attended Farnham Common Middle School for a year above the normal age to prepare her for secondary school, then Burnham Grammar School, followed by St Aldate's Secretarial college in Oxford.Jonsson speaks fluent English, Swedish, German and French.