Norway’s King Harald V has died aged 89 after a period of ill health, the royal household announced on Friday.
The monarch had been in Rikshospitalet, Norway’s national hospital in Oslo, since 17 August. He was being treated for haemolytic anaemia, a condition in which red blood cells break down faster than normal and which can lead to anaemia.
Harald became king in 1991 and remained on the throne for 35 years. In recent years he faced repeated health problems, but he always ruled out abdication.
His heir is Crown Prince Haakon. Earlier this year, in March, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of Belgium paid Harald a three-day state visit, and Harald V was also a cousin of Belgium’s former King Albert II.
Harald was born on 21 February 1937 at Skaugum in Asker, the official residence of the Norwegian royal family just outside Oslo. He was the first prince born in Norway in 567 years. At the time, the crown prince and crown princess already had two daughters, Ragnhild and Astrid. Under the constitution, only a male descendant could inherit the Norwegian throne, a rule that remained in place until it was changed in 1990.
Harald spent his first three years at the royal estate. When Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940, he fled with his mother, Crown Princess Märtha, to the United States, where they lived for five years at Pook’s Hill near Washington, DC. After Hitler’s defeat, Harald returned to Norway with his grandfather, King Haakon VII. When Haakon died on 21 September 1957, King Olav took the throne and Harald became crown prince.
As crown prince, Harald took part in numerous trade missions, a role he continued to embrace as king. He was widely seen as a steady and dutiful monarch.
In 1968, Harald married Sonja Haraldsen, a match that caused controversy at the time because she was neither from a European royal house nor from the nobility. He eventually received King Olav’s blessing, and after the wedding, the couple moved into Skaugum.
They had two children, Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon. Sonja later became queen.
Harald was also known for his love of sport and the outdoors. He carried the Norwegian flag at the opening ceremony of the 1964 Olympic Games and became an accomplished sailor. In 1987, he won a world championship title in sailing. He added a European title in 2005 and continued to compete in national and international regattas until 2022.
He was also among the initiators of the Norwegian branch of WWF and chaired the conservation organisation for 20 years. In 2013 he fulfilled a lifelong ambition by travelling to the Amazon region.
In recent years, the Norwegian royal household had also faced a series of damaging controversies. One of the most serious involved Marius Borg Høiby, who was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes and violence against a former girlfriend, though the sentence has not yet taken effect because he has appealed.
Høiby is not a formal member of the Norwegian royal family because he was born from Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s previous relationship. In the press, he has sometimes been described as a “bonus prince”.
Mette-Marit herself also came under pressure after the Epstein files revealed what was described as flirtatious communication with the convicted sex offender, who died in 2019. At around the same time, the 52-year-old crown princess’s health also deteriorated.
Mette-Marit announced in 2018 that she had been diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that causes breathing difficulties. Her condition worsened significantly in the years that followed, and in June she underwent a lung transplant.
