PROFILE: Norway’s new King Haakon VII takes throne, faces royal scandals

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As comfortable in a duffel coat as in ceremonial dress, Norway’s new monarch, King Haakon VII, is the new face of a monarchy long praised for its modernity and modesty, but now beset by woe and scandal.

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Haakon automatically succeeded to the throne Friday after his father, King Harald, passed away peacefully earlier in the day.

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The 53-year-old informed the government in a meeting that he would keep the same motto as his father and grandfather: “All for Norway.”

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He has increasingly seen his family’s affairs plastered across front pages: his wife’s lung transplant, revelations about her ties to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a rape conviction against his stepson, and the escapades of his eccentric sister and her American self-proclaimed shaman husband.’

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“Everything will be fine with him when the time comes. It is reassuring to know that,” the late King Harald said of him in a book.

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“I am fortunate that it is Crown Prince Haakon who has to take over,” Harald said, musing that his own father had probably been more worried about the succession

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The tall, bearded and stately Haakon is as modest and measured as most Norwegians — reflecting a society that shuns opulence and ostentation.

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Married to Mette-Marit, a commoner who was a single mother before their wedding, Haakon has focused his attention on issues that concern many of his generation, including environmental protection and fighting racism and homophobia.

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“It’s important that we protect who we are and for Norway to be a country where we’re allowed to love and be with whoever we want,” he said the day after a bloody attack against the gay community in Oslo in June 2022.

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Born on July 20, 1973, the prince attended state-run daycare and schools, in line with the wishes of King Harald and Queen Sonja, who were keen to see him grow up among “ordinary” Norwegians.

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After a stint in the navy, he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in political science at the University of California in Berkeley and a master’s in international politics at the London School of Economics.

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– Scandals –

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Haakon is a fan of skiing, surfing, and windsurfing, as well as music.

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It was at a 1999 music festival at Kristiansand, in southern Norway, that he met his future wife, whose tumultuous past made headlines in the Scandinavian country.

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At the time, Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby was a single mother of a young son named Marius, the fruit of an earlier relationship with a man with a heavy criminal record, including assault and cocaine possession.

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Norwegians however quickly saw beyond her wild past. The couple went on to have a daughter expected to one day be queen, Ingrid Alexandra, born in 2004, and a son Sverre Magnus, in 2005.

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But storm clouds were building on the horizon.

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Haakon’s sister Princess Martha-Louise, a fan of alternative therapies, has repeatedly been accused of exploiting her royal title for commercial purposes.

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She made headlines again by marrying a self-proclaimed shaman, Durek Verrett, in 2024, described as a dangerous “charlatan” by his critics.

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Then his stepson Marius was arrested in August 2024 and sentenced to four years in prison in June 2026 for rape and assault. He has appealed.

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Just days before the conviction, Haakon’s wife Mette-Marit, underwent a lung transplant for pulmonary fibrosis that was diagnosed in 2018.

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The Norwegian media had in February already published troubling revelations about Mette-Marit’s friendship with Epstein in the early 2010s.

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Even though the disgraced financier had already been convicted of soliciting a minor, Mette-Marit had been in frequent contact with him, their emails indicating a close relationship.

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She said she had been “manipulated and deceived”.

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“When you get married, it’s for better or for worse,” Haakon remarked in March during a televised interview the gave about the Epstein revelations.

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The scandals have tarnished the royal family’s image and weakened its support in the Scandinavian country, though it remains broadly popular.

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Haakon has nevertheless “shown himself to be a man who remains steady in the face of a storm, and that is a very valuable quality in a monarch,” Caroline Vagle, a reporter for magazine Se og Hor, told AFP.

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“He has also had the best teacher he could possibly have had in his father,” she added.

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In a poll conducted in March, nearly eight out of 10 Norwegians felt that he would make a good king.

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AFP

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