Concern is mounting in Norway for King Harald, 89, after the royal household confirmed today that his health has deteriorated to a “very serious” condition, prompting close family members to gather at his hospital bedside.
Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon, 53, who has been serving as regent while his father is unwell, cleared their official schedules and joined other relatives at Oslo University Hospital.
Norwegian news outlets published images showing the queen, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit and their grown-up children arriving at the medical facility, as members of the public began leaving floral tributes outside the Royal Palace in Oslo.
Mette-Marit’s son from an earlier relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, was also photographed at the hospital. He is currently under house arrest and wearing an electronic ankle monitor following a June rape conviction, which he has appealed.
“His Majesty the King’s health condition is extremely serious,” the palace said in a brief statement, without releasing further medical information.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said he was “deeply affected” by the news and cancelled a planned work visit to Germany on Thursday after the update on King Harald’s condition.
“I stand together with the entire country as we now send our warmest thoughts to the king and the rest of the royal family. I am confident that the king is being well taken care of, and that he is receiving good and compassionate treatment,” he said.
Norway’s bishops also reportedly ended a study trip to Rome early, where they had met Pope Leo, and were preparing to return home, according to the Christian newspaper Vart Land.
Fears are growing for Norway’s King Harald after Crown Prince Haakon and Queen Sonja cancelled all their scheduled engagements, and the palace reported his condition is ‘very serious’ today
Caroline Vagle, a royal reporter for the Se og Hor magazine, called Thursday’s statement from the palace ‘dramatic’.
‘There is now a completely different atmosphere surrounding the King’s illness than before. Over the years, the Royal Household has been very restrained in its communication about the King’s health, even when he has been hospitalised or undergone treatment,’ she told AFP.
‘There is also an entire nation that is deeply concerned and saddened. King Harald is a much-loved king.’
The update comes days after the Royal Court said Harald V was stable and had ‘responded to treatment’ for a ‘bacterial infection in his blood’.
King Harald has been receiving treatment for haemolytic anaemia, a disorder which sees red blood cells destroyed at an abnormally fast rate and leads to fatigue, paleness and breathing difficulties.
On Sunday, the palace said his health had ‘deteriorated over the weekend’ after he contracted an infection, as members of the Norwegian Royal Family have been pictured outside the Oslo hospital where he is admitted this week.
Both his children, including Crown Prince Haakon – who has been serving as Regent in his father’s absence – and former princess Martha Louise reportedly rushed to the Oslo University Hospital to be with King Harald.
It is said to have been an incredibly difficult time for Martha Louise, 54, whose husband, Durek Verrett, just underwent a successful kidney transplant after requiring dialysis multiple times a week ‘just to stay alive’.
Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit leave Rikshospitalet, where King Harald is hospitalised
The American shaman is believed to have been admitted at the same hospital as his father-in-law.
In a statement, Martha Louise and Durek said they are ‘incredibly relieved and deeply grateful’ to the organ donor, adding: ‘It is difficult to put into words what such a gift means.’
‘The new kidney has given Durek a second chance, and that is something we will never take for granted.’
While Durek is recovering, all eyes will be on the hospital amid the palace’s worrying update about King Harald.
He was admitted to hospital on August 17 and placed on sick leave for two weeks as the palace said: ‘The King has been treated with cortisone for the blood disease haemolytic anaemia in recent weeks.
‘This has led to fluid accumulation in the body that requires treatment in hospital.
‘The King is on sick leave for two weeks. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is Regent during this period. We will return to the consequences this will have for the Royal House’s official programme.’
The Norwegian monarch has been in and out of hospital this year, including earlier this month when he underwent a ‘planned check-up and follow-up with a doctor’.
He was also rushed to hospital in February while spending time with his wife, Norwegian Queen Sonja, 89, in Tenerife.
The monarch’s condition at the time was said to have been ‘satisfactory’ after he received treatment for an infection and dehydration at Hospital Universitario Hospiten Sur.
It came just two years after he suffered a similar problem while on holiday in Malaysia. That ordeal resulted in him having a pacemaker fitted.
The monarch has, however, insisted that he will never abdicate from his position due to poor health, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before ascending to the throne in 1991.
‘I stick by what I’ve always said, that I swore an oath to the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) and it is for life,’ he said previously.
Harald has presided over a difficult few months for the Norwegian royal family amid a scandal involving his daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Mette-Marit faced intense scrutiny when a tranche from the Epstein Files revealed she stayed at the paedophile financier’s Palm Beach mansion in 2013 – after his conviction for soliciting sex from girls as young as 14.
One email suggested she was still in contact with Epstein just months before his death.
Former princess Martha Louise’s husband, Durek Verrett just underwent a successful kidney transplant at the same hospital where King Harald is admitted. The couple are pictured on their wedding day in August 2024
Mette-Marit, 53, who was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, later issued a grovelling apology in which she claimed the emails ‘do not represent the person who I want to be’.
Harald defended his daughter-in-law during a public appearance that month in which he insisted: ‘We must remember that the Crown Princess has not done anything illegal.
‘Unlike some others in Norway, she broke the connection very early. So I think we should give her credit for that.’
It came in the same week that Queen Sonja was rushed to Oslo’s National Hospital after experiencing ‘heart problems’.
At the time, a statement from the Norwegian Royal House read: ‘Her Majesty the Queen was admitted to the National Hospital today due to heart problems.
‘The Queen has heart fibrillation and heart failure, and has been hospitalised for a few days for examinations and observation.’
Sonja was later discharged and said to have been in ‘much better form’. The 89-year-old had a pacemaker fitted last year after experiencing cardiac fibrillation – a rapid and irregular heartbeat.
Harald became Norway’s Crown Prince in 1957 after the death of his grandfather. He married Sonja in 1968 before becoming the monarch 23 years later when his father, King Olav, passed away.
