Who Will Be The New Norwegian Monarch?
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3 weeks ago
Norway's King Harald has died aged 89, but who will take up his post? Here’s a who’s-who of the Nordic royals
The British royals might dominate the headlines, but there are nine more royal families to know on the continent – and yes, they are all related (albeit distantly). But as regal intermarriage becomes a thing of the past, it’s the more modern conflicts, dress codes, couplings, hobbies and occupations that fuel on the ever-burning royal news fire.
The northernmost royal family is Norway’s – and they have been making headlines of their own in recent years amid an unearthing of the Queen’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein and a grave scandal involving the Crown Prince’s step son. And now the longstanding King, Harald V, has passed away aged 89 after 35 years on the throne. The Crown will pass to his son, Prince Haakon, in due course – and will hopefully unite the Nordic country rather than plummet it into further scandal. But Harald’s ascension back in 1991 was not without its controversies…
Here’s a rundown of all the Norwegian royals, plus their current standings in the family and in the media.
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Norway’s Royal Family: A Guide
Much like the British monarchy, the Norwegian monarchy can be traced back more than 1,000 years – to 872 CE, to be precise, when the nation was founded by Harald Fairhair. But unlike the British throne, there has not been one continuous bloodline donning the Norwegian crown. Along with Denmark and Sweden, Norway is one of three Nordic nations with a monarchy (Finland was very briefly a monarchy from 1918 to 1919, while Iceland was ruled by the Danish king from 1918 to 1944).
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Who Is The New King Of Norway?
King Harald V’s eldest son Haakon is set to ascend to the Norwegian throne as King Haakon VIII, following the death of his father aged 89.
Born on 20 July 1973, Prince Haakon, now 53 years old, became Crown Prince at a young age (17) when his grandfather Olav died in 1991. With his sister Märtha, Haakon was raised at the Skaugum Estate, and both were provided with as normal an upbringing as possible, attending state schools like their parents. Haakon first embarked on a military career, graduating from the Norwegian Naval Academy in 1995, before studying political science at the University of California, Berkeley and development studies at the London School of Economics.
In the 1990s, Haakon met his future wife Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby at a garden party during the popular Quart music festival in Kristiansand. The two were engaged in 2000 and wed in 2001. The couple share two children: Princess Ingrid Alexandra (born 2004) and Prince Sverre Magnus (born 2005). Haakon is stepfather to Mette-Marit’s son Marius Borg Høiby.
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Who Is The Queen Of Norway?
Born in Kristiansand in 1973, the 52-year-old Queen of Norway is Mette-Marit, wife of King Haakon VIII since they wed in 2001. Like Haakon’s mother Sonja, Mette-Marit was a normal woman before she embarked on a relationship with a prince. But Haakon’s engagement to Mette-Marit in 2000 was far more controversial than Harald’s relationship with Sonja, and came as a shock to the Norwegian public.
The future Queen came with lots of baggage. For one, her father was a convicted felon married to a stripper, while she had a self-professed ‘rebellious phase’ in the Oslo rave scene in the 90s. Around the same time she was in a relationship with John Ognby, a man convicted of drug-related offenses, before having a son, Marius, with his friend Morten Borg in 1997 – another convicted felon. By the time Haakon and Mette-Marit were engaged, she was a single mother to a three year-old, and the Norwegian public was in uproar, which prompted a press conference wherein the bride-to-be explained her past.
The couple now share Princess Ingrid Alexandra (born 2004) and Prince Sverre Magnus (born 2005), while Haakon is stepfather to Marius who is now aged 29 and embroiled in hot water – as is Mette-Marit herself. In January 2026, the US’s release of the Epstein Files revealed the now-Queen had corresponded with Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014 – long after the child sex trafficker was convicted. The pair sent hundreds of emails back and forth, with the then-Princess staying at his Florida house when Epstein was absent.
In July 2026, Mette-Marit had a lung transplant amid continued struggles with a serious lung disease, pulmonary fibrosis. She has stepped back from royal duties in recent years as her health has declined.
Who Is Marius Borg Høiby?
Marius Borg Høiby is Queen Mette-Marit’s eldest child, born before she met and married the then-Prince Haakon. Although he was welcomed into the Norwegian royal family, he does not hold and has never held any royal title or succession rights for official public duties. In short, he has access to an incredibly glitzy world without any of the responsibility of his younger siblings Ingrid and Sverre.
As Marius entered adulthood, it quickly became clear that this high-society access was being exploited. The rebellious not-Prince has been arrested multiple times for drug-related offenses, and at the end of 2024 embarked on a drug rehab programme. In the same year he was accused of abusing his diplomatic passport in pursuit of a ‘playboy’ lifestyle, and then in August 2025 Marius was charged with 32 criminal counts, including rape and domestic violence, to which he pleaded not guilty. By the time of his trial in February 2026, this had risen to 40 charges, 34 of which he was found guilty.
Described in the Norwegian media as one of the most extensive rape investigations in recent years, as of July 2026, Marius’s case is on appeal, and he remains under house arrest with an electronic tag. Though Marius is not officially part of the royal family and does not serve a public role, this recent controversy has prompted many Norwegians to consider the future of their monarchy.
Who Is Next In Line To The Norwegian Throne?
Following the death of her grandfather King Harald, King Haakon VIII’s eldest child is first in line to the throne: Ingrid Alexandra. Born in 2004, Ingrid’s birth marked a significant milestone: she is the first royal child to be affected by the 1990 switch to absolute primogeniture, meaning she is ahead of her younger brother Prince Sverre Magnus (b. 2005) in the line of succession.
Like her father and his father before him, Princess Ingrid was given a normal upbringing, educated in Oslo state schools before embarking on a year of military service in 2024. That said, in 2014 Ingrid’s parents enrolled the Princess in the private English-language Oslo International School in an attempt to aid her command of the English language.
In 2025, Ingrid began studying for her undergraduate degree at the University of Sydney, focusing on international relations and political economy like her father. In 2026, she transferred to the University of Oslo as an exchange student to be closer to her family amid health issues. She is reportedly interested in environmental issues and youth leadership. While she is still young and marriage is likely far-off, Ingrid was previously in a relationship with Norwegian student Magnus Heien Haugstad from 2022 to 2024.
Since her 18th birthday in 2022, Ingrid has been an official royal; she has an office at the Royal Palace and participates in state visits and official events. But even earlier, in 2015, she completed her first royal assignment: christening the Norwegian Rescue Company’s new lifeboat, Elias. In 2016 her name was given to the new Princess Ingrid Alexandra Sculpture Park, which features sculptures made by children for children, chosen by Ingrid. In 2018, she gave an official tour of the park to Britain’s Prince and Princess of Wales (then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge).
Who Was King Harald V?
King Harald V ruled Norway for 35 years from 17 January 1991 to 28 August 2026, when he died aged 89. He ascended to the throne following the death of his father King Olav V, and is a descendent of the House of Glücksburgs, one of Europe’s oldest ruling houses from which Britain’s King Charles III also descends.
Born in 1937 at Skaugum, a royal estate just outside of Oslo, Harald was the third child of Olav (who was born at Sandringham House to Queen Elizabeth II’s aunt Maud of Wales) and his first cousin Princess Märtha of Sweden, after two girls: Princess Ragnhild and Princess Astrid. When the nation was occupied by the Nazis in 1940, Princess Märtha and her three children were evacuated to Sweden and later the United States, meaning Harald spent much of his youth outside of his homeland, and retained a slight American twang when he spoke English even into later life. King Haakon VII and the Crown Prince Olav (Harald’s father) remained in Norway, before eventually escaping to London where the exiled Norwegian government was stationed. The family were eventually reunited in Norway at the end of the war in 1945.
Upon the family’s return to Oslo, Harald became the first Norwegian royal to attend state school. He went on to study at the University of Oslo, the Cavalry Officers’ Candidate School, the Norwegian Military Academy and later Balliol College, Oxford where he learnt to row. An avid sailor, Harald competed in three Olympics – Tokyo 1964, Mexico City 1968 and Munich 1972 – each time flying the Norwegian flag at the opening ceremony.
By this time, Harald was already Crown Prince following the death of his grandfather King Haakon in 1957, when Harald was 20 years old. This came amid a slew of family tragedies for Harald: his mother Princess Märtha died of cancer in 1954 when Harald was just 17, followed by his grandparents King Haakon in 1957 and Princess Ingeborg in 1958.
But soon after this dark spell, Harald met his future wife Sonja Haraldsen at a party. Because Sonja was a commoner, the two kept their relationship a secret for nine years. King Olav refused to let Harald marry beneath him – that is until Harald told his father he would not marry at all if he could not marry Sonja. With Harald being Olav’s sole heir to the throne, this was a grave threat: it would essentially see an end to the Norwegian monarchy. Olav eventually relented, and Harald and Sonja married in summer 1968, with their first child Princess Märtha Louise (named for his late mother) born in 1971 and their son Prince Haakon (named for his grandfather) born in 1973.
When Olav died in 1991, Harald succeeded to the Norwegian throne, becoming the first Norwegian-born monarch to don the royal crown in 600 years. Harald’s marriage to commoner Sonja prompted modernisation in the Norwegian royal family: under his rule the family has been more public, engaged more with the media, and has accepted more ‘commoners’ into the fold, with both of his children marrying ordinary Norwegian people. Harald has also opened three royal estates up to tourists. In a speech marking 25 years on the throne in 2016, Harald promoted LGBTQ acceptance just days after a gender pride event was attacked in the capital, as well as the inclusion of immigrants in a year with record high asylum numbers. Harald pointed out his grandparents were both immigrants themselves: Haakon VII from Denmark and Queen Maud from England.
Harald died in August 2026 after a series of health issues, including bladder cancer in 2003 and a blood infection that would eventually kill him in 2026.
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Who Is Sonja Haraldsen?
King Harald’s widow Sonja is now the Queen Consort of Norway, after serving 35 years as the Queen – but her beginnings are far more humble. Born to a clothing merchant in Oslo, Sonja started her career as a dressmaker, earning a diploma from Oslo Vocational School before attending finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland and going on to study French, English and Art History at the University of Oslo.
She met her future husband Crown Prince Harald at a party in 1959, with the two dating in secret for nine years before Harald’s father Olav finally approved of their union. They wed in 1968, with Sonja subsequently becoming the Crown Princess of Norway. When her husband ascended the throne in 1991, she became Queen consort – the nation’s first Queen consort in 52 years (Harald’s mother Märtha died before her husband Olav ascended the throne).
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Now aged 89, during her time as Queen, Sonja pursued her artistic interests, and established the Queen Sonja Print Award and the Queen Sonja International Music Competition to promote and support talent in the arts. She is a patron of a number of artistic organisations including the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Her son, Haakon, is now the King – though he is not her eldest child.
Who Is Princess Märtha Louise?
Princess Märtha Louise may be King Harald and Queen Sonja’s oldest child, but she is not first in line to the throne because Norway’s practice of absolute primogeniture only came into force in 1990 (way ahead of the UK’s 2015 legislation). Märtha was born in 1971, followed by her brother Haakon in 1973.
Because she is not in line to the throne, Märtha has pursued an alternative life to fellow royals, engaging in the arts and alternative therapies, especially in recent years. She was raised normally with her brother Haakon, and for many years was an accomplished horserider before embarking on a physiotherapy certification. This later sparked an interest in alternative therapies like clairvoyance and communication with angels and the dead – forming her own alternative therapy centre nicknamed ‘angel school’ in 2007. Receiving criticism for her practice, in 2019 she was ordered to stop using her ‘Princess’ title in commercial contexts.
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In 2002, Märtha opted to withdraw into private life, relinquishing her ‘Royal Highness’ title. In the same year she married Norwegian author, playwright and artist Ari Behn, having three daughters together: Maud Angelica (born 2003), Leah Isadora (born 2005) and Emma Tallulah (born 2008). As a family they lived in London and New York before settling in Lommedalen just outside Oslo. In 2017, Märtha and Ari divorced, and Ari died by suicide in December 2019.
Since May 2019, Märtha has been in a relationship with controversial American conspiracy theorist Durek Verrett, a felon and self described shaman dubbed a ‘conman’ by the Norwegian media. They wed in 2024 (making Durek the very first Black man to marry into the European royals) and sold the exclusive rights to their photos to British tabloid Hello!. She enjoys sharing her life with her 247,000 Instagram followers. In 2025, she was part of the tell-all Netflix documentary Rebel Royals along with Durek.
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All The Norwegian Royals To Know
- Current monarchs: King Haakon VIII and Queen Mette-Marit, since 2026
- First in line: Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra
- Second in line: Prince Sverre Magnus
The 29-year-old Prince Sverre Magnus is Ingrid’s younger brother, now second in line to the throne where he will stay until Ingrid has children. He enjoys skiing, biking and watersports, and has reportedly been in a relationship with student Amalie Giæver MacLeod since 2024.
Ingrid and Sverre’s older step-brother, 28-year-old Marius Borg Høiby, is currently being charged for multiple sexual offenses; he is the son of Queen Mette-Marit and step son of King Haakon.
King Harald and Queen Sonja’s daughter Princess Märtha Louise is third in line to the throne after Sverre Magnus, despite giving up her royal titles; her 2024 marriage to American conspiracy theorist Durek Verrett has sparked nationwide controversy. She has three daughters: Maud Angelica, Leah Isadora and Emma Tallulah Behn.
22-year-old Maud attracted national attention when she delivered a speech at her father’s funeral in January 2020 and in 2021 published a poetry book, Threads of Tears. Before her author father died, Maud was reportedly working on a book with him. She has more than 50,000 Instagram followers, where she posts her art. In July 2025 she came out as bisexual, posting images on Instagram at Oslo Pride.
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Boasting a whopping 170,000 Instagram followers, Maud’s younger sister Leah Isadora (21) has leant into the digital influencer life. In 2022 Leah became the very first Norwegian debutante presented at Paris’ Le Bal des débutantes. A promising makeup artist, Leah founded a cosmetics brand, Dorah by Leah, aged just 16 and reportedly did her mother’s makeup at her 2024 wedding. Perhaps best of all, in 2025 Leah starred in Norway’s answer to The Traitors, and in 2026 she will compete in Skal vi Danse (Norway’s answer to Strictly).
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The youngest Behn sister, Emma Tallulah (17), is a budding showjumper, following her mother’s childhood passion.
King Harald was the youngest of three children; his oldest sister Princess Ragnhild died in 2012 aged 82. Marrying shipping magnate Erling Lorentzen in 1953, Ragnhild had three children – Haakon (aged 71), Ingeborg (aged 68) and Ragnhild Lorentzen – and lived in Brazil from 1953 until her death.
Remaining in Brazil, Haakon is married to and shares three children with Rio de Janeiro-born Martha de Freitas: Olav (41), Christian (38) and Sophia Anne Lorentzen (32). Ingeborg wed Brazilian man Paulo César Ribeiro Filho in 1982, with one child (37-year-old Victoria Ragna Lorentzen Filho), while Ragnhild Jr married Aaron Matthew Long in 2003, sharing two daughters – Alexandra (18) and Elizabeth Lorentzen Long (15) – and seems to live in California.
Harald’s other sister Princess Astrid is still living in Oslo, aged 94. Like Harald, Astrid married a commoner in 1961: already divorced John Martin Ferner was a Norwegian sailor and Olympian, and died in 2015. They had five children together: Cathrine, Benedikte, Alexander, Elisabeth and Carl-Christian Ferner.
All living in Oslo and enjoying a life out of the spotlight, Cathrine is married to Arild Johansen and has two children: Madeleine (33, married with a young daughter called Hermine) and Sebastian Ferner Johansen (36-year-old road cyclist). Benedikte was married to Rolf Woods from 1994 to 1998, then Mons Einar Stange from 2000 to 2002. Alexander is married to Margrét Gudmundsdóttir, with children Stella (28) and Edward Ferner (30). Elisabeth is married to Tom Folke Beckmann, with son Benjamin Ferner Beckmann (27). Carl-Christian is married to Anna-Stina Slattum Karlsen, sharing one daughter.
