Norwegian royals in crisis: As the family is blighted by illness, an assault scandal and Princess Martha Louise’s controversial marriage – how will ailing King Harald fill the vacuum in power?

There’s little doubt it’s been a difficult few years for the Norwegian Royal Family.

With pending criminal charges, controversial marriages and an increasingly uncertain succession, it’s likely there is one thing on the mind of King Harald V – the future of his family.

King Harald is preparing to celebrate his 88th birthday in February – holding firmly to his title as Europe’s oldest monarch – after facing a spate of ill health at the start of the year.

Attention has gradually shifted to his succession, but rather than pass to his eldest child, as tradition now dictates, the future of the Norwegian crown feels far less certain.

Ahead of marrying American ‘Shaman’ Durek Verrett this year, Princess Martha Louise of Norway – King Harald’s eldest child – decided to step back from royal duties.

But it is her younger brother – Crown Prince Haakon – who is likely to feel the heavy burden of royal life after his wife Crown Princess Mette-Marit fell ill and stepped back temporarily.

Though he remains the heir, with his wife out of action (and his worries about the ‘uncertainty’ her condition causes) there is a possibility that his 20-year-old daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra could become Queen decades before she had expected to. 

But the family’s controversy isn’t only around the succession, with Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s eldest son Marius Borg Høiby facing assault charges brought against him by two of his ex-girlfriends. He denies the allegations.

Assault charges against Crown Prince’s step-son

Often called the ‘black sheep’ of the Norwegian Royal Family, Marius Borg Høiby has found himself in headlines again as he continues to deny allegations of assault.

Borg Høiby, who is the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship, has denied criminal liability for abuse in close relationships against two women – Nora Haukland and Juliane Snekkestad – and claims himself to be a victim.

The 27-year-old has reportedly been questioned over the allegations in eight police interviews, and was taken into custody earlier in October after breaching a restraining order.

The restraining order was for the protection of Rebecca Helberg Arntsen, whom Borg Høiby admitted to assaulting in a booze and drug-fuelled attack on 4 August, which saw him arrested for the first time and held in a police cell overnight. 

The order was not made immediately after the attack, but after Borg Høiby reportedly contacted the victim on several occasions following the assault.

Meanwhile, assault charges against the royal have recently expanded to include three more alleged victims, two of whom have been named as his ex-girlfriends Juliane Snekkestad and Nora Haukland.

However, Borg Høiby has denied the charges, with his defence lawyer claiming the 27-year-old had faced abuse in a past relationship himself.

The scandal comes at a difficult time for his immediate family, as his mother Crown Princess Mette-Marit was last week placed on sick leave due to side effects of her chronic lung disease.

Crown Princess on sick leave for chronic disease 

It emerged last week that Crown Prince Mette-Marit will step back from public life temporarily as she recovers from medicinal side effects associated with her chronic lung disease. 

The Norwegian Royal Court confirmed to FEMAIL that the 51-year-old is taking some time out, saying: ‘H.K.H. The Crown Princess is on sick leave.

‘Due to side effects of the medication that Her Royal Highness is using for her chronic lung disease, she is on sick leave, initially for a week. Her official program during this period will be cancelled or postponed.’

Earlier this month, the Royal Family warned that Mette-Marit’s current course of treatment for pulmonary fibrosis may interfere with her planned duties over the coming weeks. 

The Crown Princess’s health condition was first made public in 2018, when it was revealed Mette-Marit had been diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis or the thickening of lung tissue.

At the time, Mette-Marit issued a statement explaining that the condition ‘means my working capacity will vary’ to accommodate her treatment including ‘periods of time without an official programme’.

‘For a number of years, I have had health challenges on a regular basis, and now we know more about what is involved,’ the mother-of-three said. ‘The condition means that my working capacity will vary.

‘The Crown Prince and I are choosing to make this public now partly because in future there will be a need to plan periods of time without an official programme to accommodate treatment and when the disease is more active.’

Pulmonary fibrosis is incurable and worsens over time, but the Norwegian royal’s doctor, Professor Kristian Bjøro at the National Hospital, said they’d been monitoring her condition for several years and the ‘disease progression has been slow over this period’.

Not much is known about the unusual variant of fibrosis that was detected in Mette-Marit’s lung but, according to the Royal House, ‘there is broad consensus that, unlike other more common types of pulmonary fibrosis, it is not related to environmental or lifestyle factors’.

Crown Prince Haakon has previously spoken of ‘uncertainty’ in his life due to Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s chronic illness, 

With her condition affecting Mette-Marit’s royal duties, requiring her to lighten her load or cancel engagements, Prince Haakon is likely feeling the heavy burden of royal life.

‘She will never be cured, but the illness is not deteriorating very rapidly, which is what the doctors are aiming for,’ he said in an official autobiography published last year. 

‘She has many good days. But the uncertainty is always there. Do we have to cancel? We never know. Illness is also a part of life, as is addressing challenges together.’

King Harald has permanent pacemaker fitted

But Mette-Marit isn’t the only Norwegian royal to face health troubles this year.

Back in March, 87-year-old King Harald was admitted to the Rikshospitalet Hospital in Oslo to have a permanent pacemaker fitted.

The Royal Family said the monarch was ‘doing well’, but he was placed on sick leave for around three weeks until 8 April. At the time, 50-year-old Crown Prince Haakon had taken over his duties.

The King underwent the procedure after falling ill during a private holiday with his wife Queen Sonja last February. The couple had been visiting the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

King Harald underwent surgery on the island, and received a temporary pacemaker due to a low heart rate. 

He returned to Norway aboard a medical airplane and was immediately transferred to an Oslo hospital. The king’s doctor, Bjørn Bendz, said later that he had contracted an undetermined infection in Malaysia. 

The monarch has been in frail health in recent years with numerous hospital stays. He had an operation to replace a heart valve in October 2020 after being hospitalised with breathing difficulties.

Despite suffering from various health concerns, King Harald has repeatedly said that he has no plans to abdicate, unlike his second cousin Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who stepped down at the start of 2024.

Princess steps down and marries US ‘Shaman’

Perhaps the most notable recent controversy in the Norwegian Royal Family was the decision of the eldest daughter, Princess Martha Louise, to step back from public life.

She confirmed her decision to resign as a senior royal in November 2022, months after her engagement to American businessman Durek Verrett – who describes himself as a ‘Shaman’.

The couple married in early September, in a three-day ceremony in the fjords.

Speaking last year, Martha Louise addressed her decision to step back for the first time, claiming the moment was filled with ‘turmoil’.

The princess, 53, who describes herself as ‘spiritual’ and claims to be a clairvoyant, also spoke about being able to ‘see things’, a gift she believes she has had from being a young child.

Her resignation from public life is often compared to that of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who stepped back as senior British royals and moved abroad in January 2020.

The princess was only formally included in the line of succession in 1990, when it was updated to include women. As a consequence, she is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne. 

Her brother Crown Prince Haakon remains next in line to inherit the throne. Had the princess and her brother been born after 1990, Martha Louise would be first in line.

Martha Louise has alleged that her now-husband’s controversial views had contributed to how the public viewed her position in the royal family.

She said: ‘The Norwegian people I guess… have decided it’s best for me to step down because of his views about things.’

Durek, who describes himself as a ‘Shaman’, was dropped by his publisher shortly after the couple announced their engagement in June 2022 over pseudoscientific claims he made in his book ‘Spirit Hacking’. 

Among the claims were that children ‘can get cancer from being unhappy’.

Durek has also claimed he once came back from the dead, recovering from a month-long coma, by letting his soul ‘burn’ and he has also spoken of having to undergo a kidney transplant from his sister as a child.

It is unclear why he needed the kidney or how he became wheelchair bound, as he has described. The illness which sent him into a coma is also undisclosed.