Norwegian king, 89, taken to hospital
Norwegian king, 89, taken to hospital
Our Foreign StaffTue, August 18, 2026 at 8:27 AM UTC
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Harald V (right) with Queen Sonja attend the Norwegian Constitution Day in Oslo in May - Per Ole Hagen/Getty Images
The 89-year-old King of Norway, Harald V, has been admitted to hospital and put on sick leave for two weeks, the royal palace announced.
Europe’s longest-serving monarch is suffering from haemolytic anaemia – a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells which leads to fatigue, paleness and shortness of breath.
“The king has been treated with cortisone in recent weeks” to combat the illness, the palace said.
“This treatment has led to fluid retention in the body, which requires hospital care.”
His son, the Crown Prince Haakon, will serve as regent during his sick leave.
The Crown Prince Haakon attends the 2026 World Cup quarter-final between Norway and England in Miami - Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images
Harald, who ascended the Norwegian throne in 1991, has experienced several health problems in recent years, forcing him to have a pacemaker fitted and to scale back his official schedule.
But he has always ruled out abdicating, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before the Norwegian Parliament.
In February, he was taken to hospital for an infection and dehydration in Tenerife, where he was on a private trip with his wife, Queen Sonja.
The Queen, also 89, was briefly admitted to hospital in May because of heart problems.
The couple’s health problems follow a torrid period for the Norwegian royals, notably involving Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who is married to Prince Haakon.
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Documents published in January in the United States revealed her sustained and at times intimate correspondence with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014, at a time when the American financier had already been convicted.
The princess has also had to contend with the legal troubles of her son, Marius Borg Høiby.
Born from a relationship before Mette-Marit and Haakon’s marriage in 2001, Høiby, 29, was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes and 32 other charges, including violence against a former partner.
Marius Borg Høiby with his mother, Princess Princess Mette-Marit - Lise A…Serud/AFP via Getty Images
The trial laid bare the life of excess lived by Høiby, who was thrust into the public eye at the age of three when his mother’s romance with the Crown Prince began.
“I’m mostly known as my mother’s son, not anything else. So I’ve had an extreme need for recognition my whole life,” he told the court. “And that manifested itself in a lot of sex, a lot of drugs and a lot of alcohol.”
The rapes of which he was accused, including one said to have taken place at the royal couple’s residence, occurred between 2018 and 2024, after nights of partying during which Høiby said he had used alcohol and drugs.
He has appealed the verdict.
Princess Mette-Marit married Prince Haakon in 2001, when Høiby was four. The couple had two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus.
Høiby would make public appearances with his mother, stepfather and siblings before stepping back from public life in 2017, when he was 20, because he wanted privacy.
Suffering herself from an incurable lung disease, Princess Mette-Marit, 52, also had to undergo a lung transplant in July.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
