At the turn of the month, Princess Märtha Louise, who claims to be a clairvoyant and can speak to angels, married American self-styled ‘shaman’ Durek Verrett – who himself has sold medallions that he claimed cured Covid and called cancer “a choice”.
Unfortunately for the royal household, the wedding has gone down like a lead balloon with the Norwegian public.
How has this happened when large royal events are usually a good opportunity to curry favour with the general public?
The fallout from the wedding
The public has reacted negatively to the fact that the couple sold the picture rights to Hello Magazine and that a Netflix documentary crew were present. At the same time staff at the venue held up tablecloths to prevent the bride and groom from being photographed by the world's press.
“It looks a bit sad. And it signals that the public is to be shut out in that way. It doesn't look good from the point of view of us who are banned,” Reidun Kjelling Nybø, secretary general of the Norwegian Editors' Association, told public broadcaster NRK.
The bride and groom will argue that while Märtha Louise has retained her royal title, she has stepped back from representing the royal family and no longer carries out royal duties meaning they could restrict access.
Weddings which divide the public have become tradition in Norway, King Harald was with Queen Sonja, a commoner by birth, for nine years before his father, King Olav, consented to their wedding.
Furthermore, Crown Prince Haakon’s wedding to Crown Princess Mette-Marit was subject to heavy scrutiny. Mette-Marit, also a commoner, had the reputation of a party girl and was a single mother when she met Haakon.
In both cases, the public was won over, with Sonja now incredibly popular and Mette-Marit being compared to a Cinderella figure.
However, in the case of the most recently wed royals, the pair seem unable and, to some extent, unwilling to win the public round.
Their wedding was the latest flashpoint in a long-running series of scandals and incidents involving the pair. Verett’s claims have attracted constant negative attention, and Märtha Louise has been accused of cashing in on her royal title.
Both have said they are victims of a witch hunt by the Norwegian media. Meanwhile, Verret has acknowledged that while his views are unsettling for some, he is also the victim of racism.
"White people write all this hate and death threats to us... because... they don't want to see a black man in the royal family," he said on Instagram in June 2022.
The arrest of the Crown Prince Haakon's stepson
The royal household could be forgiven for feeling as if it has been doing nothing but putting out fires for the past couple of months as it also had to deal with the fallout from the arrest of Mette-Marit's son, Marius Høiby and his admitting to a cocaine-and-alcohol-fuelled assault on his girlfriend.
Since the arrest, two more women have come forward with similar claims.
Høiby was born in 1997 from a relationship prior to Mette-Marit's 2001 marriage to Crown Prince Haakon. While Høiby was raised by Mette-Marit and Haakon together with his half-siblings, 20-year-old Princess Ingrid Alexandra and 18-year-old Prince Sverre Magnus, he has no official role.
Though he doesn’t have a public role, he has appeared at countless royal events over the years and possesses a diplomat’s passport and lives in a property owned by the crown prince – further blurring the lines between a private person and a member of the royal family.
These scandals have hit the royal’s popularity hard
Märtha Louise’s wedding and the arrest of Høiby have shaken public trust in the royals.
A recent poll by NRK in the leadup to the wedding showed public support for the monarchy fell from 81 percent in 2017 to 68 percent currently.
The poll showed that four in 10 Norwegians said their view of the royal family had grown more negative in the past year, with many citing Märtha Louise, Verrett, or Hoiby as the reason.
Other issues hanging over the royal family
Not all the problems the royals have faced over the past few years have plunged them into a popularity crisis.
The fragile health of King Harald, aged 87, has raised questions about the royal family's future.
Earlier this year, he was repatriated on a medical transport flight to Norway, where he was fitted with a permanent pacemaker to replace a temporary one he received in Malaysia.
Europe’s oldest reigning monarch also needs crutches to get around and has scaled back his royal duties.
Despite this, he has refused to abdicate, saying his role is for life. So far, the public has backed this decision, even though the number of people who think he should hand over the reins has grown.
Harald has been a uniting figure in Norway. He has been praised for his ability to connect with the public, such as his teary-eyed speech following the tragedy of the July 22nd attacks.
His progressive views have helped the royal household keep up with the times, as evidenced by the impassioned speech he gave in 2016 in support of refugees and LGBT rights.
King Harald’s enduring popularity means Crown Prince Haakon will have big shoes to fill when the time comes. Thankfully, Haakon, Mette-Marit, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, and Prince Sverre Magnus have enjoyed solid support from the public up to this point.
The royal family still appear to be doing okay despite everything
Despite the dip in support linked to recent controversies, the royal family seemed to have banked a significant amount of goodwill with the public left in the bank.
Eva Grinde, a commentator for Norwegian broadsheet Dagens Næringlsiv, told NRK that she was surprised that support remained so high after the scandals.
"The first thing I thought was: 'Gosh, hasn't the support dropped more?' 68 percent (from the NRK poll) is solid support, despite the rather ugly drama that has unfolded in the meantime," she said.
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