The Norwegian royal family has found itself at the centre of global headlines over the past 12 months with a wedding, an arrest, a health crisis, tell-all documentary and move to Australia among the major moments making news.
Propelled into the spotlight, the monarchy has gone from being one of the lesser-known royal houses in Europe to one of the most talked about.
As the country’s King and Queen faces scrutiny like never before, ordinary Norwegians are rallying around the royal family with support for the monarchy at its highest in months.
The principal members of the Royal House of Norway in May, 2025, at the Royal Palace in Oslo. (Getty)The Royal House of Norway
The House of Glücksburg has ruled Norway since 1905 and its current monarch is King Harald V.
The Norwegian monarchy dates back more than 1000 years. If the ‘Glücksborg’ name sounds familiar, that’s because the family has ruled Denmark’s royal family for 150 years.
The two countries were merged under a single monarch in 1380 but Norway was given a subordinate role in the union. That union was dissolved in 1814 but soon after Norway entered into another with Sweden – this time as an independent nation, but with a common king.
King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, with the Crown Prince family, in August last year. (AP)
In 1905 the union of Norway and Sweden ended, and Norway chose its own monarch, King Haakon VII.
King Harald V and Queen Sonja
The now 88-year-old King Harald V came to the throne when his father King Olav died on January 17, 1991.
Harald has been battling numerous health issues in recent years and in April, 2024, the royal household announced he would be making a “permanent reduction” to his public engagements “out of consideration for his age”.
In February last year, the King was admitted to hospital in Malaysia after falling sick while on holiday.
King Harald is Europe’s oldest-serving monarch and is married to Queen Sonja. (Getty)
He was treated for an infection he contracted while staying on the resort island of Langkawi. He was later fitted with a pacemaker to compensate for a low heart rate.
Coincidentally in February this year, 88-year-old Queen Sonja had a pacemaker fitted after she fell ill during a ski holiday.
Despite their advancing years, the King and Queen regularly attend official events however more duties are being being handed over to their son and heir, Crown Prince Haakon.
The Crown Prince couple, Haakon and Mette-Marit, often perform official duties with the King and Queen. (Rune Hellestad/ Getty Images)
Despite his age and health, the king is refusing to abdicate. In January he told reporters he had taken an oath that “lasts for life”.
“It’s that simple for me,” King Harald said. “We’re at it until the bitter end.”
His marriage to Queen Sonja is one of royalty’s longest and most enduring unions.
In 1968, King Harald – who was Crown Prince at the time – married Sonja after years of defying his father and the country’s government, who claimed the relationship could plunge the Norwegian monarchy into a constitutional crisis.
The line of succession. (Graphic: Polly Hanning)
Sonja was a commoner and traditionally, royals only married other royals.
The couple broke up twice but in 1965, Harald defiantly told his father he would either marry Sonja or remain single forever – which would threaten the line of succession.
“We just kept waiting and hoping they’d all finally back down,” King Harald later told Norway’s national broadcaster NRK.
King Olav had eventually given his son and the bride his blessings and walked Sonja down the aisle as her own father had recently passed away.
The wedding of then-Crown Prince Harald and Sonja Haraldsen at Oslo Cathedral on August 28, 1968. (Getty)
In 2015, they told NRK that their meeting was a “case of love at first sight”.
Their love story was turned into a television drama earlier this year, titled Harald and Sonja (also known as The Commoner in other countries).
King Harald and Queen Sonja have two children: Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Märtha Louise.
The King and Queen’s official residence is the Royal Palace in Oslo.
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit
First in line to Norway’s throne is Crown Prince Haakon, 52.
At the time of his birth in 1971, only males were allowed in inherit the Norwegian throne – a rule which changed in 1990.
He holds a degree in political science from the University of California and a masters in development studies from the London School of Economics.
The King and Queen and the Crown Prince family, seen at the Royal Palace last year after the monarch’s health scare. (Instagram)
Crown Prince Haakon holds the rank of general in the Norwegian Armed Forces, admiral in the Norwegian Navy and general in the Norwegian Air Force.
His passions include the ocean and the environment and the prince is a keen skier.
In 2001, Crown Prince Haakon married commoner Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, who had spent six months at Wangaratta High School in Victoria, in Australia, before moving onto the University of Oslo.
But their relationship caused a huge scandal in Norway because of the bride’s past and the fact that she was a commoner.
Much was made about her previous relationships and the fact she had a young son, Marius Borg Høiby.
Days before the wedding, Mette-Marit apologised for her rebellious days in an emotional press conference.
“My youth rebellion was much stronger than many others,” Mette-Marit said, the BBC reported at the rime.
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit visit the municipalities of Ål and Hol in Norway on September 24, 2025. (The Royal House of Norway)
“That resulted in me living quite a wild life.”
Crown Princess Mette-Marit is now embraced by Norwegians following a dedicated royal career championing humanitarian causes and the arts.
There’s been a huge public outpouring of support for the Crown Princess since she was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, an incurable disease which has forced her to scale back her official duties.
The Crown Prince couple and their daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra in Denmark in 2023. (Danish Royal Household)
The 52-year-old will be absent from public duties for most of October as she undergoes lung rehabilitation in an attempt to reduce symptoms and improve Mette-Marit’s quality of life after the condition worsened last year.
“I should have done it a long time ago, but now is the time,” Crown Princess Mette-Marit said. “I need a little more help than before to cope with daily life.”
The tiaras worn by the women of the Norwegian royal family
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit live at the Skaugum Estate in Asker, one of the private residences owned by Norway’s royal family.
They have two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra
The heir to the throne, after her father, is Princess Ingrid Alexandra.
The 21-year-old is currently studying at the University of Sydney, doing a three-year bachelor’s degree in social science, specialising in international relations and political economy.
In August, her parents made a top secret visit to Australia to help their daughter settle in just weeks after her arrival in late July.
Norway’s future queen moved to Australia in late July to study at the University of Sydney. (Photo: Raquel Pires Photography / The Royal Court)
The princess will one day make history by becoming Norway’s first queen regnant in more than 600 years.
The last was Queen Margrethe I, who ruled Norway, Denmark and Sweden from 1387 to 1412, under what was then known as the Kalmar Union.
In early April, the princess completed her military service after spending 15 months as an engineer soldier and rifleman with the Engineer Battalion in Brigade North.
Princess Alexandra’s move to Sydney is taking the young royal away from official duties for three years, though she is expected to attend an event here or there when she returns home during semester breaks.
Despite her place as second-in-line to the throne, Princess Ingrid Alexandra has only recently begun carrying out regular appearances at public events.
In April, she joined her parents and the King and Queen for a state banquet inside the royal palace in Oslo hosted for Iceland’s visiting presidential couple.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra attended a state banquet for the first time in April. (AP)
It was the first time Princess Ingrid has taken part in such a formal occasion and the highest level of a foreign visit.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s father has previously joked his daughter “would have liked to have been a pro surfer on the World Tour”, had she not been born heir to the throne.
Read more on Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s extraordinary life so far here.
Prince Sverre Magnus
Prince Sverre Magnus is third in line to the throne after his sister.
Much like Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Prince Sverre has largely been shielded from the public and this year he started to carry out more official duties.
In May, the prince conducted his first solo engagement meeting athletes taking part in the Special Olympics World Games.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus carried out their first joint engagement in June. (Getty)
In June, the royal siblings attended an event for the Red Cross which was their first solo engagement away from their parents and grandparents.
However, due to his place in the line of succession Prince Sverre has less restrictions than that of his sister.
In July he created his own company, Sverre Magnus Productions, and a palace spokesperson said the prince was keen on developing skills in film and photography production.
The royal siblings have largely been kept out of the spotlight but are starting to carry out royal duties now they are older. (Instagram/Norwegian Royal Household)
In 2023, the royal house shared photos taken by Sverre to its Instagram page in celebration of Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s birthday.
Norwegian historian and author Trond Norén Isaksen said the young prince should be used more by the royal family for official engagements, due to the King’s age and ill-health and the absence of Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Crown Princess Mette-Marit from official duties.
“In order to remain operative and maintain their visibility the royal house will quite simply need Prince Sverre Magnus,” Isaksen said.
Marius Borg Høiby
Marius Borg Høiby is the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship before she married into the royal family.
When he was two-years-old, Høiby was officially recognised as a member of the royal family by King Harald before the wedding but never received a royal title.
Marius Borg Høiby pictured at the 18th birthday celebrations of his step-sister Princess Ingrid Alexandra. (Getty)
Over the years Høiby has attended many family and official events with the Norwegian royals. But in 2017, Høiby stepped back from public life because he wanted privacy, and his portrait and biography were removed from the palace website following his arrest in 2024.
On August 4 last year, Høiby became the first member of Norway’s royal family to be charged with a crime.
This August, a year after his arrest, Norwegian prosecutors indicted Høiby on multiple charges, including rape, after a lengthy investigation.
He is now facing up to 10 years in prison if convicted and his trial is expected to begin in January and could last up to six weeks.
Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek Verrett
Fourth-in-line to Norway’s throne is Princess Märtha Louise, the King and Queen’s eldest daughter.
The princess is one of the main reasons Norway’s royal house has been in the headlines of late, due to her tell-all documentary with Netflix.
Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek Verrett as seen in Rebel Royals. (Courtesy of Netflix)
Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story follows the princess and husband Shaman Durek Verrett in the lead up to their three-day wedding in August last year, from their first meeting in 2018 to their engagement and the scandals that have followed them every step of the way.
This week saw a new push to remove Princess Märtha Louise’s royal title with anger growing over her involvement in the documentary and her business dealings. A new poll found that seven out of 10 people want her to be stripped of her royal title.
Hours after the documentary’s release the palace issued a statement which said the film was “a breach of the agreement” made in the wake of Princess Märtha Louise’s royal exit three years ago.
Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek have an agreement with the Royal House of Norway that they will not use their title or affiliation with the royal family in any commercial or business activities. This includes media productions.
Princess Märtha Louise no longer carries out official engagements representing the King, something she described as “sad” in the documentary.
But King Harald has once again ruled out removing his daughter’s royal title.
The couple has an agreement with the palace not to use their royal connections to make money. (Getty)
Speaking to the media on Thursday King Harald said: “The title is not a topic for now”.
At the time of Märtha’s birth in in 1971 the line of succession favoured males and when her brother Haakon was born two years later, he immediately overtook his sister.
But when the government changed the rules in 1990, allowing females to inherit the throne, Märtha was given the opportunity to have her say.
Eyebrow-raising detail as Princess officially weds Shaman
But she rejected the opportunity to be queen.
“I was totally happy growing up, I wasn’t jealous at all,” Märtha told Business Insider.
“But when I was 15, the Prime Minister at the time was a woman, and she suddenly came up with the idea that this was wrong. I remember she came home to us, with granddad [King Olav V], and we had a discussion about whether we should change the whole system and I should be queen.
“They said, ‘What do you want, Märtha?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m 15, I don’t know about these things,'” she said.
The decision was made for Haakon to keep his place as heir.
Princess Märtha Louise and her brother Crown Prince Haakon in 2000 at the 60th birthday of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II. (Antony Jones/UK Press via Getty Images)
“For me, I was like, ‘Phew.’ It is a lot of pressure, and it really is a life that you need to choose and be committed to 100 per cent. So I’m very happy that my brother is next in line, and he’s doing an amazing job. He’s focused on all the right things.”
Princess Märtha Louise has previously worked as a clairvoyant, written multiple books and has her own clothing line, Hést.
In 2007 she co-founded Astarte Education, also known as ‘angel school’, as it was promoted, as a way for students to “get in touch with their angels”. Classes were offered in “healing, reading and touching”. It closed in 2018.
Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek Verrett announced their engagement in 2022. (Instagram/iam_marthalouise)
Her husband is American Shaman Durek Verrett, who has previously come under fire from health professionals after suggesting in his book, Spirit Hacking, that cancer was a choice.
He also sold a medallion on his website labelled a ‘Spirit Optimiser, which he claimed helped him overcome COVID-19.
Shaman Durek’s performance in Rebel Royals has been a major talking point in recent weeks.
In the film, he claimed the royal family “didn’t even know what racism was”, adding “they would look at me like I’m crazy when I would say that there’s racism”.
Much of the documentary focused on Princess Märtha Louise’s royal connections and Shaman Durek preparing to marry into the Norwegian royal family.
“I would like a royal wedding,” he said. “Because I’m going to be a royal.”
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway with her three daughters: Leah, Maud and Emma. (Instagram/iam_marthalouis)
Shaman Durek also described meeting the King and Queen for the first time “wearing a kimono and cowboy boots”.
“I had no idea I was supposed to wear a suit because I thought I could be myself,” he added.
Märtha Louise has three daughters – Maud Angelica, Leah Isadora, and Emma Tallulah – from her first marriage to Ari Behn, which ended in 2016 after 14 years of marriage. Behn died in 2019, aged 47.
Maud is an artist and writer, Leah is a beauty influencer and Emma is a talented equestrian. They do not have any royal titles.
FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.