Norway’s King Harald Dies at 89 as Crown Prince Haakon Prepares to Take Throne

Norway’s King Harald has died at the age of 89, the Royal House of Norway announced Friday, marking the end of a historic reign for Europe’s oldest living monarch.

“It is with deep grief that we announce that His Majesty King Harald has passed away,” the royal palace said in an official statement.

According to the palace, King Harald “died peacefully at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet” on Friday, Aug. 28, at 6:35 a.m.

Harald, long a central figure in Norwegian public life and the senior monarch in Europe, had been admitted to the hospital on Aug. 17 after developing a blood infection.

His health had drawn growing attention in recent years. In 2024, he received a pacemaker after becoming ill while on vacation in Malaysia.

That same year, King Harald said he would reduce the number of public engagements he attended, scaling back royal duties as concerns over his health continued.

The monarch had served as Norway’s head of state since 1991. He was Norway’s first royal heir to be born in the country in more than 500 years. In 1905, after Norway gained its independence from Sweden, Harald’s grandfather, King Haakon VII, became the first king of an independent Norwegian state since 1387.

Harald was viewed as a reformer and advocated for his fellow European royals to continue a trend towards openness with the public. 

“If you’ve opened the gate it’s very difficult to close it again,” he told Reuters. “I’m not sure I’d want to close it. So far so good, as far as I’m concerned.” 

When the Nazis invaded Norway in 1940, Harald’s mother fled with him, first to neutral Sweden, then to the United States, where they briefly lived in the White House after then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt offered the pair safe haven. 

Harald, his mother and his sisters soon moved to Bethesda, Maryland and would often meet with Roosevelt, who Harald said was like a grandfather to him. 

Harald’s son, Crown Prince Haakon, 53, will succeed him and take the name King Haakon VIII.

Haakon and his wife, who will become Queen Mette-Marit, have been embroiled in scandal since it was revealed she exchanged emails with and had multiple meetings with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

Mette-Marit said she regrets her ties to the deceased billionaire and claimed she had no knowledge of his sordid past while communicating with him. 

Additionally, Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby, who she had from a previous marriage, was convicted of several charges of rape and domestic violence in June. He was sentenced to four years in prison, and both he and prosecutors are appealing the sentence.