Norway's King Harald V dies at 89, his son becomes King Haakon VIII

King Harald V of Norway, has died at the age of 89, according to an announcement by the palace Friday morning.

Harald was Europe’s oldest monarch. As a child, he went into exile in the United States as a child during the Nazi occupation of his homeland and became known for refusing a string of European noblewomen in order to marry his school sweetheart.

The popular king modernised the royal house but refused to follow in the footsteps of other royals who had chosen to abdicate in old age. His son, the former crown prince automatically succeeds him as King Haakon VIII.

Like other royal houses in Europe, the Norwegian monarchs serve a largely symbolic role, enjoying celebrity status while real power in the democratic nation of 5.5 million rests with an elected parliament.

Harald was crowned king after his British-born father, King Olav V, died in January 1991, and reigned during Norway's an oil-and-gas-driven economic boom, which commenced in the late 1960s.

Harald was born in 1937 in Asker, near Oslo, becoming the first Norwegian prince to be born in the country since King Olav IV in 1370. In the following centuries, Norway didn't have a king of its own until Harald's grandfather, Haakon VII, was appointed in the aftermath of the 1905 dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway.

He was 3 years old when the Nazis occupied Norway at the start of World War II. To avoid capture, his mother fled with him and his sisters, Ragnhild and Astrid – first to Sweden and then by boat to the US, while Harald’s father and grandfather went into exile in Britain with the aide of Norway’s government.

Haakon’s refusal to go along with German demands garnered respect among his people.

During their time in the US, the Norwegian royals were often guests at the White House. Harald was 6 years old when he carried out his first official duty, christening new warplanes at a Norwegian air base in Canada.

The family was reunited in Norway in June 1945, shortly after the end of the war. He attended public schools, the Norwegian military college and Oxford University.

Like his father – an Olympic champion sailor in 1928 – Harald loved the sea and sailboats. He represented Norway at several Olympics, and in 1987 he skippered his yacht to gold in the World Championships.

As a young man, Harald was urged to find a bride among the princesses of Europe. For nine years he shunned a series of noblewomen, holding out until he finally won his father’s permission to marry his school sweetheart, Sonja Haraldsen, the daughter of a successful businessman.

King Olav had feared the marriage would weaken Norway’s still-young monarchy. Instead, Norwegians greeted the pair's wedding on August 29, 1968 with jubilation, later embracing Sonja as their queen. The couple had two children, Haakon and his older sister, Märtha Louise.

The Norwegian Constitution was altered in 1990 to allow the first born – regardless of gender – to take precedence in the line of succession. However, it was not applied retroactively, meaning that Haakon's future as reigning monarch was set, over that of his sister.

When Harald assumed the throne on January 21, 1991, he adopted the same motto as his father and grandfather: “All for Norway.” He spent the next years trying to modernise the monarchy.

“It has been my experience that the monarchy stands strong,” he once said. “This is not least because my father and grandfather did most things right. That puts me under pressure, but I take it as a challenge.”

Harald won the praise of the country with an emotional speech at a memorial service after a right-wing extremist, Anders Behring Breivik, killed 77 people in bomb and gun attacks in Norway in 2011.

“I remain convinced that the belief in freedom is stronger than fear. I remain convinced in the belief of an open Norwegian democracy and society. I remain convinced in the belief in our ability to live freely and safely in our own country," the king said.

In 2016, Harald gave an unexpected and impassioned speech in support of LGBTQ+ equality, refugees and religious tolerance, saying “Norwegians are girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other.” He added that many Norwegians had emigrated from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Poland and other countries and that they “believe in God, Allah, the universe and nothing.”

The public speech extolled the diversity of the Scandinavian nation and was viewed on social media by millions.

Read moreSon of Norway's crown princess sentenced to four years in prison for rape

During his reign, the royal family suffered relatively few of the scandals that have plagued their peers in the Swedish and British royal families, though Harald's daughter Märtha Louise gave up royal duties after raising eyebrows by saying she could communicate with angels and becoming engaged to an American man who identifies as a shaman.

The Norwegian royal family faced unflattering attention in early 2026 as Harald’s daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, was scrutinised for connections with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Her association with him raised questions over her judgment, though she is not accused of any wrongdoing. Mette-Marit subsequently apologised for the situation she put the royal family in, as part of a broader apology for all those she had “disappointed.”

At around the same time, Mette-Marie's eldest son, Marius Borg Høiby, was convicted of rape in a high-profile trial and sentenced to four years in prison. Høiby is her son from a previous relationship before she had met Haakon. He has no royal titles or official duties.

In January 2024, after the abdication of Denmark’s Queen Margrethe – who is Harald's second cousin – the late king said he stood by the oath he made when ascending the throne: “It lasts for life”.

However, following this he was hospitalised twice on foreign trips, including during a 2024 break in Malaysia, where he was fitted with a pacemaker, and in February 2026 while dealing with a skin infection during a holiday to the Spanish island of Tenerife.

(FRANCE 24 with AP)