COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The Norwegian king's eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, will marry American self-proclaimed shaman Durek Verret on Saturday in a picturesque corner of southern Norway.
The wedding comes against a backdrop of widespread criticism of the couple's behaviour and waning support for the Scandinavian royals, who have been dogged by negative reports about an unruly family member facing domestic abuse charges.
Märtha Louise, 52, and Verret, who claims to be a sixth-generation shaman from California, have made headlines for their alternative beliefs. She is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne but said in 2022 that she would no longer officially represent the Norwegian royal family in order to work more closely with her American fiancé.
The princess – she has retained the title – has said she can talk to angels, while Verret, 49, claims to communicate with a wide range of spirits and has a locket that helps ward off spells and cure illness.
They became engaged in 2022. After the wedding, Verret will no longer have any royal titles or official duties.
In a 2019 agreement, Märtha Louise and Verret agreed not to use her connection to the royal family and her title for commercial purposes.
But earlier this year, Märtha Louise branded bottles of gin with her title and launched the brand in time for the wedding, ignoring King Harald V’s directive that she was not to profit from her royal status. The label was eventually changed.
The couple also sold their wedding photo rights to a British celebrity magazine and the film rights to Netflix. The deals have drawn protests from Norwegian media, who say they violate local customs. The couple has often turned against the press while promoting themselves on social media.
Meanwhile, Marius Borg Høiby, the eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of Crown Prince Haakon, is suspected of causing bodily harm and criminal damage after he pleaded guilty to being drunk and using cocaine when he was briefly arrested in Oslo on August 6. Borg Høiby, Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship, has no royal titles or official duties.
Haakon called it a “serious matter.”
The scandal, along with the upcoming royal wedding, has seriously undermined support for the Norwegian monarchy. King Harald has remained silent on the issues.
A Norwegian political party known for its anti-royalist views is using recent scandals to campaign for a proposal to amend the constitution and abolish the monarchy.
“These cases show some fundamental challenges for the monarchy,” Andreas Sjalg Unneland, a member of parliament for the left-wing Socialist Left party, told The Associated Press regarding the royal wedding and the Borg Høiby case.
“Should we wait for a scandal so big that we abolish the monarchy, or can we give it a dignified end?” asked Sjalg Unneland, adding that the nation should hold a referendum on the issue.
The proposal, expected to be introduced next month, is unlikely to receive support from other lawmakers.
Saturday’s wedding will take place after the Church of Norway’s wedding liturgy. Although it is a private event and no guest list has been made public, the royal house in Oslo says Harald, Queen Sonja, the heir to the throne Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will be present. The future king and queen of Norway will be accompanied by their children. Borg Høiby will not be present.
Sweden's Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel are also expected to attend the ceremony in Geiranger, 265 kilometres (165 miles) north of Bergen, Norway's second-largest city. However, Denmark's King Frederik and his Australian-born wife Queen Mary will not be there.
Reality stars, media influencers and TV personalities round out the party of guests for the ceremony in the picturesque town of Geiranger, which is located on the shores of the UNESCO World Heritage-listed fjord of the same name.
The Norwegian royal yacht, Norge, is anchored there, surrounded by mountains and rivers. The ship will serve as the residence of the king and queen, according to the royal house in Oslo.
Märtha Louise has three children from her previous marriage to Ari Behn, whom she divorced in 2017 after 14 years of marriage.
Although she is the first child of 87-year-old Harald, her brother, two years younger than her, will succeed their father as king.
The Norwegian constitution was amended in 1990 to give the firstborn, regardless of gender, precedence in the line of succession. The amendment is not retroactive, and Haakon remains first in line to the throne. His eldest child, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, will one day ascend the Norwegian throne.
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Dazio contributed from Berlin.
