King Harald V of Norway is in an extremely serious condition at Oslo University Hospital, and Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon have gone to his bedside after his hospital stay passed more than a week. The Norwegian royal household used the phrase “extremely serious” on Thursday as senior members of the royal family gathered with him in Oslo.
Queen Sonja at Oslo University Hospital
Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon cancelled all royal engagements before arriving at the hospital, where other members of the royal family were seen on Thursday morning. Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Marius Borg Høiby were among those seen arriving, and Princess Astrid was also at the hospital according to reports in Norwegian media. For readers following the practical side of the palace response, the immediate change is simple: the family has moved from public duties to the hospital room.
King Harald V is 89 years old and has been receiving treatment for haemolytic anaemia. That illness reduces the number of red blood cells in the body and can lead to fatigue and shortness of breath. He has also been treated in recent weeks with cortisone for the same condition. The palace has not given a fuller medical explanation for the shift to an extremely serious condition, only that the king remains in hospital.
Crown Prince Haakon as regent
Crown Prince Haakon, 53, has been serving as regent while his father is on leave, so the hospital development comes as the day-to-day royal role has already shifted away from King Harald V. The family’s public calendar has narrowed sharply around the hospital, and Queen Sonja’s decision to cancel all royal engagements places her inside that same immediate response. King Harald V Of Norway Health Worsens in Oslo Hospital gives the wider sequence of the king’s recent treatment, but Thursday’s development is the most serious turn so far.
King Harald V has had multiple health problems in recent years, including a pacemaker fitted in 2024 after he fell ill on holiday in Malaysia. The palace and the royal household have now drawn the public focus back to Oslo University Hospital, where the king is being treated and where the closest members of the Norwegian royal family are staying close to him.
Jonas Gahr Støre in Oslo
The strain reached beyond the royal household. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre cancelled a planned trip to Germany, where he had been expected to meet Friedrich Merz on Thursday, and said: “The whole nation is with us as we send warm thoughts to the king and the rest of the royal family.” Members of the public began laying flowers in Palace Square in front of the palace in Oslo, turning the area outside the royal residence into the main public response to the news. King Harald V’s Norwegian Royal Family tours 173-room Royal Palace sits in the background of that setting, while the immediate question now is how long the king remains under close hospital care and when the household is ready to issue its next medical update.
For the royal household, the next step is not a public ceremony but a health update from Oslo. The immediate fact is that King Harald V is in extremely serious condition, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon are at his bedside, and the rest of the family is already reorganizing around the hospital stay.
