King Harald of Norway thanked his supporters for their support and revealed that he is receiving “expert” treatment due to his “difficult” health condition.
The 87-year-old issued a joint statement with his wife, Queen Sonja, 86, via instagram yesterday while continuing to receive medical care in Oslo.
Harald, who is Europe’s oldest monarch, was hospitalized with an infection during a private trip to the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.
He received a temporary pacemaker on Saturday.
He has since returned to Oslo and received support from close family members, including Crown Princess Mette-Marit, 50, and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 20, who visited the monarch at the Rikshospital.
“We feel a great need to thank you for all the care, help and support during the King’s illness during our holiday in Malaysia,” the couple said in their statement.
King Harald of Norway (pictured February 24, 2024) receives an ‘expert’ after falling ill with an infection while on holiday in Malaysia.
Harald and Queen Sonja issued a statement on Instagram to thank their supporters for their support. The couple appears in the photo in 2020.
The royal couple not only thanked the Norwegian public for providing them with “support”, but also the Malaysian authorities and staff who helped them during their stay.
The statement read: “We feel a great need to thank you for all the care, help and support during the King’s illness during our holiday in Malaysia.
‘We have felt the pressure coming from the Norwegian people at this time. The great commitment has moved and strengthened us. Thank you all for the concern you have shown us in the family.
‘Well, in Norway, we also want to thank the Malaysian authorities and the staff at the Sultanah Maliha Hospital in Langkawi.
“Together with Norwegian health personnel, they did everything possible to ensure that the king recovered well from his illness and was ready for his return home.
‘We are very grateful to the Norwegian government, the Armed Forces and others who helped make the journey home so safe and easy for us. At the Rikshospitalet, Kongen is being treated by experts.’
They concluded: “We thank each and every one of those who have provided us with care, practical and health assistance in a difficult situation.”
Harald (pictured May 4, 2019) was returning home from Malaysia on Sunday after falling ill on vacation and spending several days in hospital, the royal palace said.
King Harald, Norway’s ceremonial head of state since 1991, is Europe’s oldest living monarch. He has been hospitalized repeatedly for infections in recent years and has undergone heart surgery.
He contracted a respiratory infection in January, days after dismissing speculation that he might abdicate, following the example of his distant cousin, Queen Margaret II in Denmark.
Last week, two days before Harald’s 87th birthday, the palace announced that the king would embark on a private trip abroad, without specifying a destination or dates, according to the Norwegian news agency NTB.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he was “saddened” to learn of the king’s hospitalization and wished him a “speedy recovery,” NTB said.
Despite Harald’s precarious physical condition, the royal is certain he wants to continue as Norway’s reigning monarch.
Last month, the royal confirmed she has no plans to abdicate after speculation she could follow in the footsteps of her former Danish counterpart Queen Margaret.
Traffic officers escort King Harald V of Norway and delegates out of the Sultanah Maliha hospital on Langkawi island, Kedah state, Malaysia.
A Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) plane carrying King Harald V of Norway and delegates on the tarmac before taking off from Langkawi International Airport to return to Norway.
The monarch, who is the second cousin of King Charles III, insisted that the promise he made to the Norwegian Parliament when he acceded to the throne in 1991 “lasts a lifetime.”
King Harald told Faktisk.no: ‘I stand by what I have said all along. I have taken an oath before the Storting and it is for life.
It comes after Queen Margaret of Denmark, 83, abdicated after 52 years on the throne, making way for her son Frederick to take over as king on January 14.
A royal expert later suggested that the Danish monarch had broken an “invisible pact” between the heads of state of the Scandinavian countries that none would renounce the throne.
Roger Lundberg told STV that after Denmark’s move, there is a possibility that King Harald of Norway and King Carl Gustaf of Sweden, 79, will follow suit and step down to allow their eldest sons to take the throne.
However, this was firmly rejected by King Harald.
King Harald V of Norway, pictured, was hospitalized with an infection while on holiday in Malaysia. The monarch is photographed on February 24 in Norway
The Norwegian king was 53 years old when he acceded to the throne in 1991, after the death of his father, King Olav. Prior to this, he had acted as Crown Prince Regent due to his father’s illness, which worsened in the spring of 1990.
King Harald has faced some health problems in recent years and spent time in hospital to treat an infection last May, but he clearly has no intention of abdicating.
Her Scandinavian neighbor, Queen Margaret of Denmark, made the shocking announcement that she would renounce the throne in her New Year’s Eve speech.
The Danish Royal Family has spent the past two years dealing with several scandals, including the Queen’s surprise decision to strip her grandchildren of their princely titles.
There were also rumors of a “romance” after then-Crown Prince Frederik was seen in Madrid with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova.
But Denmark is not the only monarchy in the Scandinavian nations that has had a difficult few years: Norway’s royal family experienced its own “Megxit.”
The only daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja, Princess Martha Louise, fourth in line to the throne, stepped down as a royal in 2019.
Pictured from left to right: King Harald V, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway.
In 2022 it was announced that the mother of three would no longer represent the royal house in any capacity following her engagement to an American shamanic healer who had been criticized for his controversial views.
King Harald said Martha would not be allowed to use her royal title in any future business partnerships with her partner Durek Verrett, 47.
Shortly after the mother of three announced her engagement to Verrett, a Norwegian publisher dropped her book ‘Spirit Hacking’ over pseudoscientific claims, including that “children can get cancer if they are unhappy.”
Among his other claims, Verrett says he once came back from the dead, recovering from a month-long coma, letting his soul “burn” and has also spoken of having to undergo a kidney transplant from his sister when he was child.
Following Martha Louise’s decision to resign, King Harald stressed that his daughter remains a princess at her request, saying: “She is our daughter and will remain so.” So this is Princess Märtha Louise.’
The princess was previously married to Ari Behn, whom she married in 2002 and they had three children together: Maud Angelica, 19, Leah Isadora, 17, and Emma Tallulah, 14. They separated in 2016 and Ari removed her life on Christmas Day in 2019.
Crown Prince Haakon, Martha-Louise’s older brother, is Norway’s heir apparent, and the future king has already gotten a taste of what it will be like to ascend the throne after replacing his father several times over the past few years.