Norway mourns a beloved king as his son, Haakon VIII, takes the throne and inherits a royal family facing intense public scrutiny.
ByBernadette Giacomazzo
August 28, 2026
Key Takeaways
- King Harald V of Norway died at 89 after a 35-year reign in which he modernized the monarchy and championed immigrants, religious diversity, and LGBTQ+ people.
- The three-time Olympic sailor refused to abdicate despite mounting health problems, insisting that his oath required him to serve for life.
- His son succeeded him as King Haakon VIII, making 22-year-old Princess Ingrid Alexandra crown princess and first in line to the throne.
King Harald V of Norway, the reform-minded monarch who opened one of Europe’s oldest royal houses to a changing country, has died at 89. The Royal Palace announced that Harald died peacefully at Oslo University Hospital at 6:35 a.m. on Friday, August 28, ending a 35-year reign.
According to The Guardian, Harald’s 53-year-old son immediately succeeded him as King Haakon VIII. Unlike the spectacle surrounding King Charles III’s coronation, Norway’s transfer of power unfolded with considerably less fanfare, as the country abolished coronation ceremonies more than a century ago.
Harald’s condition had been described as “very serious” one day before his death. He had been receiving treatment for hemolytic anemia and faced a series of health problems in recent years, including the implantation of a pacemaker in 2024.
Still, he repeatedly rejected calls to step aside, maintaining that the oath he took before Norway’s parliament required him to serve for life.
Following the announcement of his death, flags were lowered, church bells rang, and mourners gathered outside the Royal Palace in Oslo.
“A whole nation is in mourning,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said, crediting Harald with an “unwavering faith in the Norwegian people.”
Støre added, “King Harald loved Norway. And Norway loved its king.”
Tributes also arrived from royal families and political leaders across Europe, including King Charles III, who remembered his cousin as a “towering figure” who led with “warmth and humility.”
Harald’s relationship with Norway stretched back well before he took the throne in 1991. Born in 1937, he was the first Norwegian prince born in the country in nearly 600 years but spent part of World War II in the United States after his family fled the Nazi occupation.
He later studied at the University of Oslo and Oxford’s Balliol College—and built an athletic résumé uncommon for a head of state. An accomplished sailor, Harald represented Norway at three Olympic Games: Tokyo in 1964, Mexico City in 1968, and Munich in 1972.
His private life also helped reshape Norway’s monarchy. Harald refused to marry unless he could wed Sonja Haraldsen, a commoner he had dated for years, and the couple married in 1968.
As king, he made the palace more accessible, welcomed commoners into the royal family, and became an unusually direct voice for inclusion. After the 2011 terror attacks that killed 77 people, Harald told a grieving country that “freedom is stronger than fear.”
Five years later, he delivered a widely praised speech embracing immigrants, religious diversity and LGBTQ+ Norwegians, including “girls who love girls” and “boys who love boys.”
That unifying legacy now collides with a difficult inheritance for King Haakon. The new monarch takes the throne as support for the royal family has fallen amid scrutiny surrounding his wife, now Queen Mette-Marit, and her past correspondence with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She later expressed her “deepest regret” and apologized for placing the royal family—“especially the king and queen”—in that position.
Her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, was also sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted of rape and dozens of additional charges; he has appealed. Høiby holds no royal title and is not in the line of succession.
Mette-Marit, meanwhile, underwent a lung transplant this summer while managing pulmonary fibrosis.
Haakon formally notified government ministers of his father’s death during an extraordinary council of state and adopted Harald’s motto, “Everything for Norway.”
Haakon’s 22-year-old daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, is now crown princess and first in line to the throne.
