Crown Princess Mette-Marit and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra were seen today visiting King Harald at the Rikshospital in Oslo, Norway.
Mette-Marit, 50, seemed focused as she drove her Tesla to University Hospital to visit her father-in-law with her daughter Ingrid Alexandra, 20.
King Harald, 87, was rushed to Oslo yesterday aboard a medical evacuation plane after being hospitalized with an infection during a private trip to Langkawi, Malaysia.
“He will remain in hospital for a few days to receive treatment and rest,” the royal household said in a statement on Sunday.
King Harald, Norway’s monarch since 1991, is Europe’s longest living monarch. He has been hospitalized repeatedly for infections in recent years and has undergone heart surgery.
Princess Mette-Marit and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra looked positive as they headed to the Rikshospital today.
Princess Mette-Marit and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra looked positive as they headed to the Rikshospital, with Ingrid smiling for photographers.
It was previously said that the king was expected to be on sick leave for two weeks. Crown Prince Haakon, who married Princess Mette-Marit in 2001, has presided in his father’s absence.
King, 87, had been hospitalized with an infection during a private trip to the resort island of Langkawi. He received a temporary pacemaker on Saturday.
A medical plane believed to be carrying the King took off from Langkawi on Sunday afternoon, after police escorted a convoy including an ambulance from the hospital to the airport, AFP reported.
Queen Sonja was traveling with the king, who would be admitted to Oslo’s Rikshospitalet hospital upon his return to Norway, the royal household said in a statement.
“The king will be on sick leave for two weeks,” it said. “During that period, the crown prince will be regent and assume the constitutional duties of the king.” Haakon, crown prince of Norway, 50, had already presided in his father’s absence.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra smiled at photographers as the couple passed by.
King Harald V of Norway leaves Notre Dame Cathedral after attending the funeral of Grand Duke John of Luxembourg, in Luxembourg, May 4, 2019.
Princess Mette-Marit and Princess Ingrid Alexandra visit King Harald at the Rikshospital in Oslo, Norway today.
Norway’s King Harald V landed in Oslo on Sunday after flying home from Malaysia, live footage shows.
On Saturday, the royal household had said the king could fly home in a couple of days. He said the government had asked Norway’s military to help with the trip.
King Harald has been repeatedly hospitalized 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.
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.”
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.
King Harald walks on crutches on his way to lunch with members of the Norwegian government on February 24, 2024 in Oslo, Norway.
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.
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.
Pictured from left to right: King Harald V, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon of Norway.
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.
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.