Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit cancels special birthday outing due to illness

Publish date: 2024-05-27

Crown Prince Haakon carried out a solo visit to Finnmark instead

Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Crown Prince Haakon will both celebrate their 50th birthdays this summer and each month, they are visiting a different part of Norway to commemorate the occasion.

But on Tuesday, the Crown Princess was forced to cancel her engagements in Finnmark due to illness.

Crown Prince Haakon stepped out solo to open a new primary school and later he visited Sami College in order to gain a deeper understanding of Sami culture, language and academia.

Norway's royal palace shared photos from the royal's outing on its official Instagram account and in the caption, it stated: "The visit to Kautokeino school is part of the Crown Prince couple's travels around Norway in connection with their 50th birthday. Crown Princess Mette-Marit also came to Finnmark, but had unfortunately fallen ill and was prevented from attending the visits."

SEE: Prince Louis' biggest milestones ahead of 5th birthday

View post on Instagram 

The palace did not give further details about the Crown Princess' illness.

In October 2018, Mette-Marit was diagnosed with a form of pulmonary fibrosis, and has restricted her royal duties in recent years.

In the coming months, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess will also visit Træna in May and Oslo in June. Their birthday programme will conclude with a backyard party at the Royal Palace in Oslo in August.

The royal couple are parents to 19-year-old Princess Ingrid Alexandra and 17-year-old Prince Sverre Magnus.

Mette-Marit also has a 26-year-old son, Marius Borg Høiby, from a previous relationship.

King Harald V has been monarch of Norway since January 1991. Learn more about the other kings and queens of Europe in the clip below…

WATCH: Meet the Kings and Queens of Europe

Despite having an older sister, Princess Martha Louise, Crown Prince Haakon is the heir to the Norwegian throne.

This is because absolute primogeniture did not take effect in Norway in 1990, and was not done retroactively, meaning Haakon has continued to take precedence over his sister.

Sign up to HELLO Daily! for the best royal, celebrity and lifestyle coverage

By entering your details, you are agreeing to HELLO! Magazine User Data Protection Policy. You can unsubscribe at any time. For more information, please click here.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7qbHLpaammZeWx6q6xGeaqKVfp7y6rcutsGhsaWWBdIWOnKmor55ivbO1zZycrKtdorK1wMRmpJqqmal6pK3NnJylq12rtrS102adoqaeoq6zt4yio6WmlajAcA%3D%3D