Caloroga Shark Media
Aug. 28, 2026

King Harald V of Norway Dies at 89: His Life, Reign, Family and Lasting Legacy

King Harald V of Norway Dies at 89: His Life, Reign, Family and Lasting Legacy

Who was King Harald V of Norway, and why was he so loved by the Norwegian people? Norway’s monarch has died at 89 after more than 35 years on the throne, bringing one of the longest and most consequential reigns in modern Norwegian history to an end. His son has immediately succeeded him as King Haakon VIII, while Princess Ingrid Alexandra is now heir to the throne.

We look back at Harald’s childhood exile during World War II, his nine-year fight to marry Queen Sonja, his three Olympic appearances and his determination to modernize the Norwegian monarchy without destabilizing it. How did King Harald respond to the 2011 Norway attacks? Why did he describe marrying for love as a human right? How did he handle the controversies involving Princess Märtha Louise, Durek Verrett and Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son Marius Borg Høiby?

From his famous inclusive speech about Norwegian identity to his refusal to abdicate despite serious health problems, this is the full story of King Harald V’s life, family, reign and legacy—and what his death means for Norway’s Royal Family.


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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.