King Harald of Norway died this Friday, August 28, 2026, at the age of 89, as confirmed by the Swedish Royal Household in a statement: «With deep sadness we announce the passing of His Majesty King Harald. The king Harald died peacefully at the National Hospital on Friday, August 28 at 6:35 a.m.» The monarch passed into the annals of popular culture for being the first heir to a European throne who married a commoner from the middle class, Sonja Haraldsen.
He broke centuries of tradition for love. Despite the fear within the family and the formidable controversy that his decision provoked, Harald’s bet proved sound, because he and Sonja have been together for more than fifty years. Harald was born in the difficult prewar era of the world, on February 21, 1937, at the royal palace of Skaugum, on the outskirts of Oslo. The peaceful life of the royal family was disrupted, as it was for thousands of Norwegians, with the Nazi threat on their borders and the subsequent invasion.
Harald was six years old when his mother, Crown Princess Märtha, he and his elder sisters Ragnhild and Astrid fled to Sweden, where their maternal grandfather, King Oscar II, awaited them, while his father, Prince Olav, and his grandfather, King Haakon, attempted to resist. A few months later, in June, Haakon and Olav flew to London, establishing a government in exile. Märtha and her children had to emigrate to the United States when it became evident that no one could protect them in Sweden, amid the advance of the Nazis.
Harald was educated in a United States public elementary school, with hardly any differences from his other classmates, except for a discreet bodyguard in the hallway. The family returned to Norway in 1945, after the war, and Harald attended Cathedral School in Oslo. He earned a degree in Science, and in 1955 enrolled in the Norwegian Military Academy, before studying in the University of Political Science, History and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford, following in his father’s footsteps.
The difficult and beautiful love story of Harald and Sonja of Norway
Harald V ascended to the throne on January 17, 1991, after a regency period, and was confirmed as king on June 23, in the Lutheran cathedral of Nidaros, near Trondheim, where all Norwegian kings had been crowned until 1907. Beside him stood his wife, Sonja. Together they occupied two golden thrones on either side of the main altar.
The love story of Harald and Sonja had already begun when the young prince left for Oxford to study. They were still teenagers and their courtship lasted nine years. Harald told his father, but he had to face the distrust of Parliament, of the Norwegian people and of his own father.
Los reyes Sonia y Harald de Noruega, en una imagen de archivo.
The heir to the throne could not marry the daughter of a textile merchant, no matter how prosperous his business. Sonja fell ill while studying in Switzerland, and Harald returned to seek her so they could return to Norway, abandoning his studies and working at the National Arctic Shipping Company and at the Norwegian Forest Commission.
The Government eventually authorized the engagement, which was announced in March 1968. Harald managed to convince everyone that Sonja was not a threat to the monarchy, but quite the opposite. It was a secret courtship, but with a dramatic undertone. Sonja, a textile design graduate, expanded her studies in Art History and Sewing in Geneva. But she grew impatient and threatened to commit suicide if the relationship was not made official. Harald threatened to abdicate the throne. They ultimately married on August 29, 1968.
The bride designed her own dress, in white silk and rhinestones, and pinned her veil with a simple floral ornament. Sonja opened the path for a generation of middle-class queens who, from Letizia of Spain to Máxima of the Netherlands, have demonstrated their knack for bearing the crown in the new times.
Sonja of Norway, the pioneer of plebeian queens
In the year 2000, Harald and Sonja also had to face a problematic situation when Haakon, the heir, announced that he wanted to marry Mette Marit Tjessen, a commoner, former model, but also a single mother.
Princess Märtha Louise also broke molds by getting engaged to a provocative and scandal-prone writer, Ari Behn, who ended up committing suicide after divorcing. Her second partner, with whom she has married, is a Californian-born shaman, Durek Verrett, for whom Märtha Louise has relinquished her princess privileges, though she has not lost the title.
The King Harald of Norway, in a recent image.
In the early sixties, there were whispers that an imminent engagement between Princess Sofia of Greece and Harald of Norway would take place. The rumors did not stop, and it seems Queen Federica looked upon it favorably. Sofia ultimately became engaged to Juan Carlos, “Juanito, the one from Barcelona,” as he was known in royalty. Harald had eyes only for Sonja, although it has since been said that the problem with this union between Sofia and Harald lay in the lack of a dowry equal to the future groom.
Harald, health fragile in recent years, underwent knee surgery two years ago after a valve was replaced in his aorta. In 2019 he suffered an infection and severe vertigo. In 2003 he had undergone treatment for bladder cancer and, in 2004, had heart surgery. During the last weeks, in August 2026, the Norwegian king was hospitalized to receive treatment for hemolytic anemia, a blood disease that caused him to have trouble breathing. His son, Prince Haakon, has assumed the regency of the country during this time.
