Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit of Norway celebrate their silver wedding anniversary this Tuesday, August 25, a date that, as already announced, will be celebrated privately due to the princess’s health condition, still recovering from the lung transplant she underwent just over a month ago. At the beginning of last June, when the Norwegian royal house announced that the future king’s wife had been placed on the lung transplant list, it was also reported that the couple’s silver wedding celebrations had been postponed. Still “awaiting the operation,” the note specified that it would not be possible “for the crown princess to work or carry out official commitments normally.” Finally, the lung transplant, necessary due to the worsening of the chronic pulmonary fibrosis diagnosed in 2018, was successfully performed on June 17. Since then, the princess has only reappeared on two occasions: in a photo released to support the team during the last Football World Cup and in a car with her husband visiting King Harald at the hospital, who has been admitted since last week due to anemia worsened by a bacterial infection.
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On the day of the anniversary, the Norwegian royal house published a recent photo of the couple on their official Instagram account (with 509,000 followers), alongside which this dedication can be read: “Congratulations on your silver wedding anniversary to the crown princes! Today marks 25 years since Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit said ‘I do’ at Oslo Cathedral on August 25, 2011. Twenty-five years of love, family, and a life together.” The snapshot, showing the couple in a photo taken a week ago outside their residence at Skaugum, on the outskirts of Oslo, has already accumulated more than 12,000 likes and nearly 500 comments.
Later, from the same profile, they published a carousel of older images of the couple, corresponding to their honeymoon in the United States. After marrying and accompanied by her son, Marius Borg Høiby — then just a child — the couple traveled to New York, where they spent a few days at the end of August and from where they then traveled to a luxury hotel in Long Island. At this second destination, the couple learned of the September 11 attacks, which is why they were relocated to another hotel before flying back to Oslo.
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Mette-Marit has limited her public appearances to a minimum over the past year due to the worsening of her illness, which occurred amid the scandal over new revelations about her friendship with the late American pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, for which she issued public apologies. Additionally, the family has been affected by the trial of the princess’s eldest son, Marius Borg Høiby, who was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two cases of rape and for abuse of one of his ex-girlfriends, a sentence that is not final as it has been appealed. Meanwhile, the young man remains under house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet.
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In mid-July, Haakon of Norway’s wife was discharged, although, according to the medical team at the time, the patient would continue rehabilitation and remain away from institutional commitments. Earlier, on July 6, the first photos of Mette-Marit after her lung transplant arrived, a carousel of snapshots on Instagram after the Norwegian team’s qualification to the World Cup quarterfinals, showing her with her husband a few weeks after her surgery.
Haakon and Mette-Marit’s wedding, held on August 25, 2001, was preceded by controversy caused in Norwegian society by the “turbulent” past of the princess — as she herself described it — who had Marius Borg Høiby with a man who later went to prison for drug trafficking. As this newspaper published on the day of the announcement of their engagement, December 1, 2000, the now princess’s past was even debated by King Harald with government members to assess the suitability of authorizing the heir’s wedding. “The decision of the lovers, a crown prince and a girl from the people, has implications that go beyond the private sphere,” was published then. After the debate, and happily for the couple, the consulted members advised the monarch to “accept the will of the couple and give consent.”
The 25th wedding anniversary of the princes is celebrated while King Harald V completes eight days hospitalized at Oslo’s Royal Hospital due to anemia that has led to a blood infection worsening his health last weekend. The royal house informed this Monday that the 89-year-old monarch remains stable with no changes after receiving treatment for which he remains hospitalized, with no information yet on when he might be discharged. Meanwhile, once again, Haakon of Norway has resumed regent duties.