Norway gets King Haakon VIII after Harald V dies amid royal turmoil

Copenhagen,UPDATED: Aug 28, 2026 14:16 IST

Norway has a new king after Harald V died on Friday, with Crown Prince Haakon, 53, becoming King Haakon VIII. His accession comes at a difficult time for the monarchy, with one of his main tasks set to be steadying the institution and strengthening public support after controversies involving his wife Crown Princess Mette-Marit and his stepson Marius Borg Hoiby.

Haakon’s eldest child, Ingrid Alexandra, now becomes Crown Princess and heir to the throne. Although Norway’s monarchy is largely symbolic and political power rests with an elected parliament, the royal family remains a prominent national institution and plays a role in representing the country abroad. Support for the monarchy remains in the majority, but it has fallen in recent years.

Haakon has already had experience carrying out royal duties. As Harald aged and his health declined in recent years, he stepped in as regent on several occasions. Norway’s monarchy traces its roots to King Harald Fairhair in the ninth century. After Norway regained independence from Sweden in 1905, three-quarters of voters in a national plebiscite backed restoring the monarchy.

Haakon is the younger child of Harald, born two years after his sister, Princess Märtha Louise. As the oldest male, he became heir to the throne when his grandfather, King Olav, died in 1991. Norway changed its Constitution in 1990 so that future firstborn children, regardless of gender, would take precedence in the line of succession, but the change was not applied retroactively. Haakon said in a 1998 book that he had dreamed as a child of owning a toy shop, but soon understood that he was destined to become king.

He studied political science at the University of California, Berkeley, and later completed a master’s degree in development studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, specialising in international trade and Africa. In 1995, he graduated from the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy and also completed the Foreign Ministry’s trainee programme for diplomats. An avid surfer, skier and sportsman, he once told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that if he had not been a royal, he would have been a surfer. He is also a music lover who enjoys rock and rap and attended festivals across Europe in his youth.

His personal life drew intense attention when he met Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby at a popular music festival in Norway in 1999. She was a single mother whose son’s father had been jailed for cocaine possession, and she had been seen at parties where illegal drugs were used. The relationship divided the country. Some supported the couple, while others were doubtful. Norwegian newspaper VG wrote in 2000 that Haakon “lives closer to the people than any other heir to the throne before him.” In a May 2000 interview with NRK, Haakon said that in the early 1990s, “a youth culture emerged in Oslo” and acknowledged that Mette-Marit was “an active part of this environment at the time.” He added: “It is clear that there is relatively extravagant partying there.”

Haakon nevertheless won permission from his father, who had himself married a commoner, to marry Mette-Marit. They wed at Oslo Cathedral in August 2001. The couple’s popularity rose sharply as they combined a more accessible public image with the glamour expected of royalty, while trying to keep their family life relatively normal and private. They have two children, Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus. Haakon also became stepfather to Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Hoiby, who does not hold a royal title.

The royal family’s standing was hit again in June, when Hoiby was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of rape. He was found guilty on two of the four rape charges he faced and acquitted on the other two. He was also convicted of assault and abuse in a close relationship. His lawyers said he would appeal the convictions. The case unfolded as scrutiny of the royal family intensified over disclosures about Mette-Marit’s past contacts with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She has publicly apologised for the association and said she showed poor judgement in keeping in touch with him. She has not been accused of wrongdoing. In a television interview in March, she said she had been manipulated and deceived by Epstein and had felt unsafe during a 2013 meeting with him at his mansion in Palm Beach, Florida.

In 2018, the royal palace said Mette-Marit had been diagnosed with a rare form of chronic pulmonary fibrosis, which at times forced her to step back from official duties. The incurable illness made breathing increasingly difficult and caused a dry cough, fatigue, weight loss and loss of appetite. She underwent a lung transplant in June. In 2023, when NRK interviewed the couple around their 50th birthdays, it aired old clips of Haakon playing guitar while Ingrid Alexandra and Mette-Marit sang, and another showing him and his children copying the moves of a Norwegian rapper. Watching the footage, he laughed and said it showed that “I am all in.”

Another challenge for the new king is to rebuild public confidence in the monarchy. Critics have also pointed to the role of Märtha Louise in the family’s reputational troubles. She has written books saying she has contact with angels, and in 2024 she married Durek Verrett, an American who describes himself on his website as a shaman and healer. In 2022, she announced that she would no longer officially represent the royal house after “many questions relating to me and my fiance’s role”. A Dagbladet poll published in late 2022 found that 68 per cent of respondents wanted to keep the monarchy, down from 81 per cent in an NRK poll in 2017. As Haakon VIII begins his reign, he takes over a monarchy with deep historical roots but also clear pressure to restore trust and support.

With PTI Inputs

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