One of the most moving images from King Harald of Norway’s funeral was that of his sister, Princess Astrid, bidding him farewell in a touching and solitary manner, sitting alone in a wheelchair beside his coffin. Just two days after the monarch’s body was moved to the royal crypt of Akershus Fortress, the king Haakon’s aunt died at the age of 94. The Norwegian royal family was in mourning again.
The new Norwegian monarch remembered her by saying that «throughout her long life, the princess Astrid represented the Royal House in a warm and dutiful way» and highlighted «her warmth, dedication, and commitment to the most vulnerable».
King Harald and Princess Astrid were the two last surviving children of King Olav V. Of very different dispositions, they were inseparable since childhood. Harald was the serious heir, while Astrid was the mischievous princess. They grew up during World War II and had to face exile together and the tragedy that the death of their mother, Crown Princess Märtha, at only 53 years old, meant.
It was then that Princess Astrid became the First Lady of Norway at the age of 22. King Olav did not remarry and Harald’s sister kept the title until her brother’s wedding in 1968. Born with only five years difference, the shared traumas forged between them the foundations of a fierce loyalty and a complicity that would accompany them into old age.
Harald and Astrid: between war and exile
Before reigning for more than three decades, King Harald represented Norway at three Olympic Games and studied at Oxford University. But the chapter of his life that may be less known is the five years he spent in exile in the United States. Harald and Astrid’s early childhood abruptly ended in April 1940, when German forces occupied Norway. King Haakon VII and Crown Prince Olav fled to London, where they established a government in exile.
Crown Princess Märtha took a different path, fleeing to Sweden with Harald and his two older sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid. The escape was full of difficulties from the start, as dramatized in the miniseries Atlantic Crossing. But the neighboring country could not be a permanent refuge. Some Swedish politicians considered that the presence of the Norwegian royal family posed a threat to the country’s neutrality, and there were even voices calling for Harald and his mother to be returned to Norway, where the Nazi occupiers hoped to install the young prince as a puppet king.
The Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway with their children: Harald, Astrid and Ragnhild.
It was then that President Franklin D. Roosevelt extended a personal invitation to Märtha and her children to travel to the United States. The previous year, Norway’s Crown Prince and Princess had already undertaken a ten-week tour of the country to strengthen diplomatic and economic ties between the two nations. The couple was first received with a parade and a rain of confetti in New York City and, later, enjoyed a picnic at the Roosevelt family’s residence.
The family settled in the Washington, D.C. area, initially staying at the White House, before finally moving to a Tudor-style mansion in Maryland. Harald attended White Hall Country School in Bethesda along with his sisters. And, at just six years old, he undertook his first royal engagement: baptizing a new aircraft at a training base then known as Little Norway, in Ontario (Canada).
Her sister and most faithful confidant
With an unbreakable fraternal bond until the end that we are reminded of Queen Sofia and her sister Irene, Harald spoke of Astrid as his “closest confidante.” The two supported each other through marriages, births, family scandals, and the very uncommon fact of having been born into a monarchy that dates back to Viking times.
Princess Astrid, beside her brother Harald’s coffin.
Back in Norway and still serving as the country’s First Lady, Astrid married Johan Martin Ferner at Asker Church. He was an Olympic silver medalist in sailing and a businessman. Their relationship was quite controversial at the time, since he had been married before and Norway was a more socially and religiously conservative country. Once married, she was known as Princess Astrid, Lady of Ferner. This marriage lasted until Johan’s death in 2015, and they had five children: Catherine, Benedikte, Alexander, Elisabeth, and Carl-Christian.
Neither her husband nor her children received any royal title, which allowed them to live on the margins of the royal court. This did not prevent Princess Astrid from continuing to support her country and her loved ones. In the family circle, she was described as “the glue of the family”, the person whose sense of humor balanced Harald’s more stoic character. They shared private jokes, childhood memories, and a camaraderie beyond noble titles until the end.
