Crown Prince Haakon of Norway withdrew from two royal engagements this afternoon as Princess Mette-Marit’s health condition forced another change to his schedule. The Prince of Norway was due at a Royal Palace reception and a Crown Prince Couple’s Fund board meeting. The Norwegian Palace said he will spend more time with the Crown Princess during this period.
He pulled out of a reception at the Royal Palace and a board meeting of the Crown Prince Couple’s Fund tomorrow. The Palace said, “Due to the Crown Princess’s health condition, the Crown Prince will adjust his program going forward to facilitate being together more with the Crown Princess during this period,” making the schedule shift the latest in a series tied to her illness.
Royal Palace schedule shifts
Haakon has already missed a cabinet meeting last week and left his official trip to Japan early. Those changes came after the Palace linked his program to the Crown Princess’s life-threatening chronic lung disease. Princess Mette-Marit was diagnosed with chronic pulmonary fibrosis in 2018 and has been placed on the wait list for a lung transplant.
The Palace said the next update on the Crown Princess’s condition will come after the lung transplant has taken place. Until she is discharged from Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, the Palace said it will issue updates when appropriate, followed by an extended period of rehabilitation and recovery.
Haakon’s public worry
Last month, Prince Haakon said, “The Crown Princess is seriously ill, and I think she has gotten a bit worse lately,” adding, “So I am worried about her health.” He also said, “She uses oxygen in her everyday life, and that helps a bit.”
Marius Borg Høiby, the Crown Princess’s son, said after his sentencing yesterday, “It’s hard to think that every Sunday when we see each other, it could be the last time I see her. I never know when a spare lung will come along. It’s a surgery that carries a lot of risk. Sitting inside while I know that my mother is so sick is unbearable.” For now, the immediate change is practical: Haakon’s public program is shrinking around his family’s needs, while the next medical update waits on the transplant itself.
