Oslo, Norway – Norway’s 89-year-old monarch King Harald V, who has been hospitalized for a blood disorder, has seen a sharp decline in his health and is now classified as being in “extremely serious” condition, the Norwegian Royal Palace confirmed in an official statement released Thursday.
Following the announcement of the king’s worsening health, Queen Sonja and 53-year-old Crown Prince Haakon – who has served as regent during Harald’s ongoing illness – have scrapped all upcoming public royal engagements. Local Norwegian media reports confirm both senior royals are currently at the king’s bedside at Oslo’s main hospital, with photos captured by press outlets showing Queen Sonja, Haakon, and his wife Crown Princess Mette-Marit arriving at the medical facility earlier this week.
King Harald, who is currently the oldest reigning monarch in Europe, first entered Oslo University Hospital on August 17 to receive treatment for haemolytic anaemia, a chronic blood condition marked by the premature breakdown of red blood cells that often causes persistent fatigue and difficulty breathing. He was initially admitted after experiencing dangerous fluid retention triggered by cortisone treatment for the condition. By Sunday, palace officials shared that the king had developed a bacterial blood infection and was receiving antibiotics, noting that he had shown initial positive responses to the intervention. No further specific clinical details have been released alongside Thursday’s update on his severe decline.
Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store told Agence France-Presse he was deeply shaken by the updated health news. “I stand together with the entire country as we now send our warmest thoughts to the king and the rest of the royal family,” Store said. “I am confident that the king is being well taken care of, and that he is receiving good and compassionate treatment.”
In response to the announcement, Norway’s national body of bishops cut short an official study visit to Rome, where they had been meeting with newly elected Pope Leo XIV, and arranged for immediate return to Norway on Thursday, according to local Christian publication Vart Land.
Harald V ascended to the Norwegian throne following the death of his father King Olav V in 1991. In recent years, the monarch has faced a string of chronic health issues: he received a pacemaker to regulate cardiac function and has gradually reduced his public official schedule, but he has repeatedly rejected calls for abdication, noting that he took a lifelong oath of service to the Norwegian people before parliament.
This year has already been marked by repeated health scares for the royal household: in February, Harald was hospitalized during a private vacation in Tenerife for an infection and severe dehydration, while Queen Sonja was briefly admitted for cardiac-related concerns in May. The current decline in the king’s health comes amid an unusually turbulent year for the entire Norwegian royal family, which has faced multiple public controversies in recent months.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit has faced sustained public scrutiny over her documented links to disgraced late American financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Court documents released in the United States earlier this year exposed years of regular, at times intimate correspondence between Mette-Marit and Epstein that ran from 2011 to 2014 – years after Epstein had already completed his conviction for sex offenses. Now 53, Mette-Marit lives with a severe chronic lung disease and underwent a life-saving lung transplant just last month.
Adding to the royal family’s public pressures, Mette-Marit’s son from her first relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, is currently at the center of a high-profile legal case. In June, he was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted on two counts of rape and 32 additional criminal charges, including repeated violent assault against a former romantic partner. He has since filed an appeal against the verdict, which is still pending.
Despite the string of controversies and health challenges that have hit the royal household this year, the institution remains broadly popular among the Norwegian public, a level of support widely attributed to King Harald’s reputation as a unifying national figure known for his unassuming, modest personal lifestyle that aligns with Norwegian cultural values.