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Hello and welcome to Palace Intrigue. I am your host,
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Mark Francis.
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This is a special episode of Palace Intrigue we have
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borrowed from our sister series, Crown and Controversy, Norway. Norway
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is mourning King Harald V, who has died at the
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age of 89 after more.
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Than 35 years on the throne.
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The Norwegian royal house announced that the king died peacefully
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at Oslo University Hospital at 6.35 Friday morning local time.
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His death brings to an end one of the longest
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and most consequential reigns in modern Norwegian history, and it
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immediately begins another. His son Haken has succeeded him as
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King Haken VIII, while Haken's daughter Ingrid Alexandra becomes the
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new heir to the throne. The death of a monarch
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always creates two stories at once.
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There is the.
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Personal loss suffered by the family, and then there is
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the constitutional transfer that happens immediately around it. In Norway,
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both are especially significant because King Harald was not simply
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a long-serving head of state. Over the course of his reign,
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he became one of the most familiar and reassuring figures
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in Norwegian public life, a monarch who gradually reshaped the
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image of the royal family from something formal and distant
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into something more open, more emotional. and more recognisably human.
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Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stora captured the national mood in
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his response to the King's death. He said, A whole
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nation is in mourning, and the people of Norway are
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left with a deep sense of gratitude for a long
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life in the service of Norway. For more than three
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decades as monarch, Harold V demonstrated an unwavering faith in
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the Norwegian people. He helped us to see the best
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in ourselves and in one another. My thoughts and deepest
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sympathy are with the Queen, and the entire royal family
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at this difficult time. That sense of Harald as a
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monarch who reflected Norway back to itself was central to
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his reign. He was often described as approachable, warm, and understated,
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qualities that mattered because he occupied a role that could
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easily have seemed remote in one of Europe's most egalitarian societies.
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Royal correspondent Tuva Talason described him as one of us,
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while royal expert Caroline Vagel said, He has never been
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afraid to show emotion, humor, or vulnerability, and that has
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made him very human. That humanity became especially important during
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the worst crisis of his reign. In July 2011, Norway
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was devastated by the terrorist attacks in Oslo on the
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island of Utøya, where 77 people were killed. In the aftermath,
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Harald did not respond with the stiff language of protocol.
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He spoke as a father, a grandfather, and a king,
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telling the country, I can only imagine the depth of
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your pain. As king of this nation, I feel for
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each and every one of you. His voice broke as
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he spoke, and the moment became one of the defining
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images of his monarchy. Historian Ulla-Jürgen Schulstad Hansen later said,
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I think that moment has been burned into our minds
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of what a monarchy should be. That observation goes some
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way toward explaining why Harald remained so personally popular even
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when the royal family around him was caught up in controversy.
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He was seen as a stabilizing figure, someone who could
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carry the symbolic weight of the institution without making the
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institution feel larger than the people it was supposed to represent.
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Harald's own life had prepared him for that role in
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unusual ways. He was born on February 21, 1937 at Skalkum,
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the royal estate near Oslo, and was the first Norwegian-born
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prince in more than five centuries. He was only three
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years old when Nazi Germany invaded Norway in 1940. His
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mother fled with Harald and his sisters to Sweden and
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then to the United States where they spent part of
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the war in Washington. His father, the future King Olav V,
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remained in Europe with King Haken VII and Norwegian government
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in exile. Harald returned to Norway after the war in
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1945 when he was eight years old. The experience of
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exile became part of his family mythology. and helped shape
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the royal family's strong identification with Norway's survival as an
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independent nation. That helps explain the motto Harald later inherited
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from his father and grandfather, everything for Norway, or in
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another common translation, all for Norway. He was educated in Norway,
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completed his military service and later studied social science, history
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and economics at Balliol College, Oxford, but one of the
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most important decisions of his early life had nothing to
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do with education or public duty. It involved Sonja Haraldsson,
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the woman he wanted to marry. Sonja was not royal.
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She was the daughter of a businessman, and in the
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1950s and 1960s, that was still considered a serious obstacle
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for a future king. Harald and Sonja dated for nine years,
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while the royal household and political establishment considered whether the
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marriage should be allowed. Harald eventually forced the issue by
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making clear that if he could not marry Sonja, he
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would remain unmarried. That was not an idle threat. Harald
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was the only son of King Olav, and under the
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succession rules at the time, he was the only person
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through whom the dynasty would continue. If he refused to marry,
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Norway would eventually face a succession problem. King Olav ultimately
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gave his consent, and Harald and Sonja married at Oslo
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Cathedral on August 29, 1968. Years later, Harald said simply,
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Sonja has meant everything to me. The marriage became one
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of the most important precedents of Harald's life because it
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changed the way he viewed the institution he would eventually lead.
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He had personally experienced what it meant when monarchy collided
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with private life, and he appears to have decided that
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his own children would not be put through the same ordeal.
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That became especially important when his son Haken fell in
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love with Metamorit Chesim Hoibi, a single mother whose background
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attracted enormous scrutiny. Harald strongly supported the relationship, In his
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later biography, he described marrying the person you love as
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a human right. It was an unusually direct statement from
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a monarch, but it was consistent with the way Harold
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came to approach questions of family and duty. He believed
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the monarchy could survive change, and that trying to freeze
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royal life in an earlier era could ultimately do more
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damage than allowing the institution to adapt. Harkin and Metamoreet
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married in 2001, and Harold welcomed her into the royal family.
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He also accepted her son, Marius Borg-Huebe, as part of
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the wider family circle, although Marius never held the royal
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title or official role. That family instinct was also visible
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in the way Harald handled the very different life choices
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of his daughter, Princess Martha Louise. Martha Louise eventually stepped
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back from official royal duties and later married the American
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self-described shaman Durek Verrett. Their commercial activities and public statements
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caused repeated controversy in Norway and and the royal household
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eventually drew clearer boundaries between Martha Louise's private business interests
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and the monarchy itself. Harold did not pretend there was
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no problem. He made clear that he did not always
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agree with the couple's public behavior or business choices, but
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he also maintained his relationship with his daughter and attended
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her wedding. The approach was characteristic of Harold. The institution
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could establish limits, but the family bond did not have
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to be broken. The same instinct shaped his response to
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one of the most painful events in his family's private life.
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In 2019, Martha Louise's former husband Ari Ben died by
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suicide on Christmas Day. Ben was the father of Harold's
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three granddaughters through Martha Louise, and the king later spoke
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about the difficulty of addressing the loss publicly. Harold said,
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I had no doubt that what happened to Ari Ben
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had to be mentioned in the New Year's speech. When
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his family decided to be open about it, it was
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only natural for me. It would have been completely wrong
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not to include it. Still, it was difficult for me
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to find the right words, because I was talking about
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the father of my granddaughters. The experience also connected to
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Harald's own childhood. His mother, Crown Princess Martha, died when
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Harald was still young, and he later remembered how little
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emotional support was available to him at the time. I
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had to process it on my own. There was no
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one to talk to about it. Only one of Dad's
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good friends brought it up. He understood how I felt.
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Otherwise.
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Not many people talked about it. That history helps explain
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why Harald became a monarch who was unusually comfortable talking
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about grief, vulnerability, and emotional life. He was part of
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a generation of European royals raised in a much more
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reserved culture, but over time, he allowed himself.
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To move away from it. More in just a moment.
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In 2016, Harald gave an address that became famous for
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its broad definition of Norwegian identity. He said Norwegians came
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from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, from Sweden, Somalia and Syria,
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and that they believe in God, Allah, the universe and nothing.
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He also said that there are girls who love girls,
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boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love
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each other. For a king, particularly one born before the
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Second World War, that language was striking. It presented monarchy
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not as a guardian of a narrow national identity, but
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as a symbolic institution, capable of embracing a much broader one.
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Harald's strength was that he could make those changes without
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presenting himself as a radical. His style was calm, understated,
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and often humorous, which allowed him to modernize the tone
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of the monarchy without making the monarchy itself seem unstable.
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He was also an athlete of genuinely international standing, sailing
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was one of his great passions, and Harald represented Norway
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at three Olympic Games. He competed at Tokyo in 1964,
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where he also served as Norway's flag bearer, and later
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competed at the Mexico City Games in 1968 and Munich
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in 1972. Over the course of his sailing career, he
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took part in more than 1,000 regattas and events, later
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winning major championship medals and continuing to sail well into
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old age. That sporting identity contributed to his image as
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an active, accessible king. He was not simply photographed at
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sporting events, he had actually competed at the highest level.
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His father, King Olaf, had also been an Olympic sailor
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and won a gold medal in 1928, making sailing part
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of the family's public identity across generations. Harald remained engaged
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with the Olympics long after he stopped competing, He opened
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the Lillehammer Winter Games in 1994, and he continued attending
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major sporting events, including the Milano Cortina Winter Games earlier
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this year. The Olympic movement, in its tribute, noted that
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Harald did not retire from sailing until the age of 85.
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His public duties continued even as his health became increasingly difficult.
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Harald underwent hard surgery more than once, including a procedure
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in 2020 to replace an implanted valve. He later had
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surgery on his knee and was frequently seen using crutches.
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In 2024, while on a private trip to Malaysia, he
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became seriously ill with an infection and required the implantation
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of a pacemaker. Despite that, Harald repeatedly made clear he
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did not intend to abdicate. When Queen Margaretha of Denmark
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stepped down in 2024, Harald was asked whether he might
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follow her example. His answer was unequivocal. He said, I
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maintain what I have said all along. I have taken
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an oath.
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And it lasts for life. And in the end, it did.
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Harald Dyer's personally popular, but the royal family itself has
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been under intense pressure. Harkin and Metamoreet have endured months
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of damaging headlines involving Metamoreet's past association with Jeffrey Epstein
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and the criminal case against her son, Marius Borg-Hueyby.
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Over the weekend, we'll take a look at what all
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this means for the future. And there you have it.
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We'll continue to update this series with events in Norway.
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And please follow or subscribe to Crown and Controversy Norway
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for these episodes.
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I'm Mark Francis. My thanks to John McDermott. This is
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Palace Entry.