General News & Information for King Harald V and Queen Sonja: 2006 -

[Hans-Rickard]

He has recently been sick and then came Ari Behn’s death wich i’m sure affected him greatly... It doesn’t seems to be serious or in any way cause for concern but he is after all 82 (soon 83) and we know he has a heart condition, so it’s good that he is careful.

Rest until you’re well Your Majesty and not a day earlier ! We want to have you with us for many more years !!

[Prisma]

Wishing King Harald rest and a speedy recovery.

[Jacknch]

I'm very fond of King Harald and really do hope he benefits from some proper rest and recuperation.

[eya]

"King Harald is still in hospital and will remain there until further notice, the royal court said this Friday afternoon"


https://twitter.com/OAanmoen/status/...295361/photo/1


«His Majesty is admitted to the National Hospital. The king is in the process of improvement and is expected to be discharged next week», says Sven Gj. Gjeruldsen, assistant communications manager to TV-channel NRK.


https://twitter.com/OAanmoen/status/...781632/photo/1

[SLV]

I hope he gets better soon, he didn't look well at the funeral at all.

[crm2317]

That doesn’t sound very positive, wishing King Harald the very best!

[principessa]

Me too.

Crown Prince Haakon reminds me a lot on the lone warrior. He alone runs now the NRF. I guess Queen Sonja spends now as much time she can spend at Haralds site, the Crown Princess might have problems with her lung disease and Princess Märtha Louise is with her daughters. What a difficult time for the Norwegian royals!

[Muhler]

True. The dreaded scenario is moving closer: That the NRF de facto is down to one working adult.
Out of sheer necessity I fear Ingrid will have to take on heavy royal duties from very early on. Perhaps she will be as young as twenty, when she will have to go on official visits abroad on her own.

Fortunately for Norway, Ingrid is Ingrid.

[Hans-Rickard]

Originally Posted by principessa

Me too.

Crown Prince Haakon reminds me a lot on the lone warrior. He alone runs now the NRF. I guess Queen Sonja spends now as much time she can spend at Haralds site, the Crown Princess might have problems with her lung disease and Princess Märtha Louise is with her daughters. What a difficult time for the Norwegian royals!

I somehow don’t think Sonja is at the hospital through the entire days. I don’t think Harald would appreciate that. They seems to be a ”just get on with it” couple like QEII and Philip (although more open with their feelings than the stiff upper lip brits).

Haakons workload will only increase. And it will likely increase a lot over the coming years... The King and Queen turns 83 this year and the King is on sick leave from time to time. The Queen is undoubtly in better health than her husband but still she is getting older too.

Ingrid and Magnus will undoubtly have to take on significant duties from when they turn 18 to help their father. At the same time Ingrid will have to prepare herself for her own future Queenship. But i guess any prolonged studies abroad is out of the question for her. Most of her studies will be inside Norway so she can combine her education with royal duties and act as regent when her father is abroad. It will be demanding for her but she has already proved that she is capable of a lot for someone in her age..

[Blog Real]

The scenario is complicated in Norway. Much of the work now goes to Prince Haakon. King Harald and Queen Sonja are becoming increasingly ill with health; old age will not allow them to have many royal duties.
Ingrid Alexandra will have to start helping her father as she continues her studies. But I also believe he has already shown that he can do it.
Unfortunately Princess Mette-Marit also has health problems, so she will not always be able to help Prince Haakon.

[Mbruno]

Originally Posted by Muhler

True. The dreaded scenario is moving closer: That the NRF de facto is down to one working adult.
Out of sheer necessity I fear Ingrid will have to take on heavy royal duties from very early on. Perhaps she will be as young as twenty, when she will have to go on official visits abroad on her own.

Fortunately for Norway, Ingrid is Ingrid.

I am sure she will do her duty. I just hope that taking royal duties early on doesn't interfere too much with her formal education.



On a different comment, I also hope that Haakon eventually decides to draft his younger son as a working royal when he is old enough. It never made sense to me that he is not an HRH and, with such a small royal family, his help would be much appreciated.

[Stefan]

Originally Posted by Mbruno

On a different comment, I also hope that Haakon eventually decides to draft his younger son as a working royal when he is old enough. It never made sense to me that he is not an HRH and, with such a small royal family, his help would be much appreciated.

Even more so if the health of the Crown Princess will decline (hopefully not for a long time but one never knows).

[wartenberg7]

Originally Posted by Muhler

True. The dreaded scenario is moving closer: That the NRF de facto is down to one working adult.
Out of sheer necessity I fear Ingrid will have to take on heavy royal duties from very early on. Perhaps she will be as young as twenty, when she will have to go on official visits abroad on her own.

Fortunately for Norway, Ingrid is Ingrid.

Unfortunately this also one of the things that come with the desease of "slimming down the monarchy" going on in the Royal Houses. I mean, 30 years ago, Märtha Louise would still be "HRH" and a working member of the Royal Family and not been allowed to do her own stuff. Magnus would still be HRH Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway and at a later stage able to support father and elder sister etc. ...

[Muhler]

Originally Posted by wartenberg7

Unfortunately this also one of the things that come with the desease of "slimming down the monarchy" going on in the Royal Houses. I mean, 30 years ago, Märtha Louise would still be "HRH" and a working member of the Royal Family and not been allowed to do her own stuff. Magnus would still be HRH Prince Sverre Magnus of Norway and at a later stage able to support father and elder sister etc. ...

True.
The minimum requirement in any monarchy IMO are five adults working royals. - And preferably all of them in working order.
Illness, divorce, accidents, unfortunate behavior and old age can quickly reduce the number of working royals - as we are seeing in Norway right now.

[iceflower]

A new extra thread has been created and can be used for further discussions about the above mentioned matters:


** The Future of the Norwegian Monarchy **

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Will (perhaps) reply to some of the above posts in the new thread, but first to His Majesty.

Frailty: Back/leg pain, which causes him to walk more and more unsteady. He is also breathing heavily after walking in stairs.
But despite this, he had about 272 engagements last year (without counting his sailing-stuff and appearances at the Norwegian Skiing Championships at Meråker and at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld). And if knowing him right (from interviews and stuff), I'm pretty sure he'll keep it going to he lies on the floor, which hopefully won't happen for a 5-10 years yet.

Health-history:
2003: Operated for bladder cancer.
2005: Operated two times for heart problems (he had to have the second one due to a complication).
2017: Hospitalized for an infection.
2020: Hospitalized for dizziness after various stresses (i.e. the death of Ari and a viral infection in December).
Plus some cancellations of engagements in recent years, due to issues with his back, legs and one of his feet.

BTW, here one can see The Queen (first) and Crown Prince (second) leaving the Rikshospital by cars on Jan 10th (link).

Media-coverage: Several articles from the various news outlets, and reporters from NRK and TV2 reporting live from outside the hospital.

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CP Haakon: Well, was already pretty busy with about 200 engagements last year (without counting his appearances at the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Alpine World Ski Championships in Sweden - plus his visits to Colombia, Tonga, Fiji and Samoa). And in addition to that, he has two teenagers and a wife with a severe life-shortening illness to look after.

[HereditaryPrincess]

This isn't looking good for Harald. I hope I'm wrong though!

[eya]

"King Harald has Wedensday morning been discharged from the hospital after one week. This is reported by the royal court right now. The Crown Prince will still be acting regent for another week."


https://twitter.com/OAanmoen/status/...105985/photo/1

[ROYAL NORWAY]

Originally Posted by HereditaryPrincess

This isn't looking good for Harald. I hope I'm wrong though!

Since we are talking about an increasingly frail almost 83-year-old man here, which in addition is the monarch and has a history with serious illness (see post 139), then it's quite normal to keep him under observation for a while (in this case a week).

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Posts from the ''General News and Information for the NRF'' thread on Jan 13th:

Originally Posted by Blog Real

Crown Prince Haakon, Norway's acting monarch in the King's absence, announces that he will meet the press soon at 3 PM / 15:00 Norwegian time.

An update on King Harald's health is expected.


https://mobile.twitter.com/OAanmoen/...19072110563328

Originally Posted by Blog Real

Crown Prince Haakon has just met the press and said:

"I thank you for your thoughtfulness.

The king is in recovery, we expect him to be home from the hospital during this week. After the conditions he is fine.
He was dizzy and unwell, which is why he was admitted to hospital."
The Crown Prince added: "It has been a heavy period in recent weeks. We try as best we can to take care of each other."

Thanks!

In addition to that, the CP-Regent said that ''they are examining his condition'' at the hospital.
Which to me indicates that the doctors (on that day) probably hadn't found the exact cause of his dizziness yet. But since the court on Jan 8th (the day he was admitted) said that ''no serious illness had been found,'' it is probably not something too bad.
And if I were to guess: Well, most likely something to do with recent stresses. I.e. the viral infection he was suffering from in December and Ari's death.

BTW, The Crown Prince was also asked about three other things:
1. How The King's condition had affected CP Haakon's programme, to which he said: ''Ikke så veldig mye enda, men det betyr jo for eksempel at han ikke har mulighet til å ha statsråd da, så da er det jeg som har det istedet. Så litt forandringer blir det underveis.''
''Not very much yet, but it means, for example, that he (The King) doesn't have the opportunity to preside over the Council of State, so I am the one doing it instead. So there will be some changes along the way.''

Without any changes from me, it would have sounded like this, which is what he actually said: ''Not very much yet, but it means, for example, that he (The King) doesn't have the opportunity to have the Council of State, so it's I who have it instead. So some changes there will be along the way.''

2. What he thought about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s decision the step down as senior royals, to which he said: ''Jeg tenker at alle skal puste litt med magen, og så kommer de helt sikkert til å finne gode løsninger på det.''
''I think everyone should breathe a little with their stomach, and then they will certainly find good solutions to it.''

3. How the family was doing after Ari Behn's death.
Well, have just written a post about it in that thread (link), which includes translations of what CP Haakon said - and a VG-video of the press-meeting.

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Originally Posted by eya

"King Harald has Wedensday morning been discharged from the hospital after one week. This is reported by the royal court right now. The Crown Prince will still be acting regent for another week."


https://twitter.com/OAanmoen/status/...105985/photo/1

Very good news! And hopefully, that utterly amazing king of mine will now take some time to rest (at what I believe will be The Royal Lodge on the outskirts of Oslo) before returning to duty.

[eya]

King Harald back again!!

"King Harald is healthy again! This was just published by the Royal Court. On Friday, he will attend the state council, where it is expected that the PM will present new government ministers."

https://twitter.com/OAanmoen/status/...113408/photo/1