The 89-year-old monarch is fighting a blood infection while recovering from a rare disease. It is just the latest heartbreak for a family that has already dealt with a lung transplant, a prison sentence, and a massive scandal this year.
You expect a royal family to deal with ceremonies and ribbon cuttings. You do not expect them to spend the year fighting off infections, prison sentences, and lung transplants. But for the royals in Norway, 2026 has been a nightmare.
King Harald V is back in Oslo University Hospital. The 89-year-old monarch has a bacterial infection in his blood. The palace admitted his health has worsened, though they say he is responding to the antibiotics.
He has been on the throne since 1991, but his body has been slowing down. Over the last few weeks, doctors have been treating him for a rare blood condition called haemolytic anaemia. It drains his red blood cells, leaving him exhausted and short of breath.
His son, 53-year-old Crown Prince Haakon, is stepping in as regent to handle the daily royal duties while his father rests.
The king’s health has been slipping for a while. Last year, he had a pacemaker put in after getting sick on a trip to Malaysia. The palace already admitted he would be doing a lot less public work “out of consideration for his age.”
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But the king’s illness is just one piece of a very dark year for the family.
In June, Crown Princess Mette-Marit had to get a lung transplant after battling a rare lung disease for years.
Just two days after her major surgery, her son Marius Borg Høiby was sentenced to four years in prison for rape. He is not a royal titleholder, but the scandal hit the family hard. He denies the worst charges and is appealing.
Earlier in the year, the princess had to publicly apologize for being friends with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. She told a national TV audience she had shown “poor judgement” and wished she had never met him.
The palace is asking for privacy while the king fights off this latest infection. The crown prince is holding things together. For a family that usually represents quiet stability, this year has been nothing but heavy doors closing in hospital hallways and courtrooms.
