![\"King](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c1_6204510.jpg\")
<\/p>\n89-year-old monarch being treated in hospital for blood disease<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKing Harald V of Norway is seen with Queen Sonja at the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize awards in Oslo in December 2024. (Photo: AFP)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
OSLO – The health of Norway\u2019s 89-year-old King Harald, hospitalised with a blood disease, has deteriorated and he is in an \u201cextremely serious\u201d condition, the palace said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Queen Sonja and 53-year-old Crown Prince Haakon, who is acting as regent during his father\u2019s illness, have cancelled all royal engagements, said a palace statement. Norwegian media said they were at the king\u2019s bedside.<\/p>\n
Europe\u2019s oldest reigning monarch has been in hospital in Oslo since Aug 17 suffering from haemolytic anaemia, a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells which leads to fatigue and shortness of breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis Majesty the King\u2019s health condition is extremely serious,\u201d the palace said, providing no specific details.<\/p>\n
Norwegian media showed images of the queen, Haakon and his wife Mette-Marit arriving at the hospital.<\/p>\n
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said in a comment to AFP that he was \u201cdeeply affected\u201d by the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Following the palace announcement, Norway\u2019s bishops cut short a study visit to Rome where they met with Pope Leo and were to return to Norway Thursday, according to Christian newspaper Vart Land.<\/p>\n
Harald was admitted to Oslo University Hospital due to fluid retention from cortisone treatment he was receiving.<\/p>\n
The palace said on Sunday that he was receiving antibiotics for a bacterial infection in his blood and that he had responded to the treatment.<\/p>\n
Harald, who ascended the Norwegian throne in 1991, has had multiple health problems in recent years, forcing him to have a pacemaker fitted and to scale back his official schedule.<\/p>\n
But he has always ruled out abdicating, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before the Norwegian parliament.<\/p>\n
Turbulent year<\/p>\n
In February, he was hospitalised for an infection and dehydration in Tenerife, where he was on a private trip with Queen Sonja.<\/p>\n
His wife, also 89, was briefly admitted to hospital in May due to heart problems.<\/p>\n
Harald\u2019s health woes come at a turbulent time for the Norwegian royal family.<\/p>\n
Haakon\u2019s wife Mette-Marit is under scrutiny for her ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n
Documents published in January in the United States revealed her sustained and at times intimate correspondence with Epstein between 2011 and 2014, at a time when the American financier had already been convicted.<\/p>\n
Mette-Marit\u2019s son from a previous marriage, Marius Borg Hoiby, is also in the spotlight as a result of legal troubles.<\/p>\n
He was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes and 32 other charges, including violence against a former partner. He has appealed the verdict.<\/p>\n
Suffering herself from a serious lung disease, Mette-Marit, 53, had to undergo a lung transplant in July.<\/p>\n
The royals remain broadly popular with the Norwegian public, in large part to Harald\u2019s unifying figure and his unassuming, modest lifestyle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"89-year-old monarch being treated in hospital for blood disease King Harald V of Norway is seen with Queen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[85],"tags":[417,72558,27097,157,72557,55790,156,13155,27096,72559],"class_list":["post-153950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oslo","tag-crown-prince-haakon","tag-haemolytic-anaemia","tag-king-harald","tag-norway","tag-norway-monarchy","tag-norwegian-royal-family","tag-oslo","tag-oslo-university-hospital","tag-queen-sonja","tag-royal-health-update"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117167673188811654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}