Dusan Reljin / The Royal Court
Mette-Marit, Crown Princess of Norway
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has undergone a successful lung transplant following reports of a deterioration in her pulmonary fibrosis. The information was provided by the Norwegian royal house this Wednesday.
Prince Haakon’s wife was on a waiting list for a transplant, following pulmonary fibrosis that had been diagnosed in 2018. Her condition generated a wave of solidarity and even an increase in the number of organ donor registrations.
“Like all newly transplanted patients, the Crown Princess will remain in hospital for several weeks,” said the professor Are Holmdo Oslo University Hospital.
According to , the crown prince and princess thanked the public for the “warm and kind” messages of support they had recently received. The next public update on Mette-Marit’s health status will only be released after hospital discharge.
Earlier this month, Oslo University Hospital announced that the princess had been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant following a significant deterioration in her health that, without surgery, would likely give her only one year of life.
In December, Crown Prince Haakon confirmed that the family had noticed a change in Mette-Marit’s health and that she was having more difficulty breathing.
The surgery took place at a delicate time for the royal family. Earlier this week, Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Hoibywas considered guilty of 34 of 40 crimes set out in the initial charge, including domestic violence and two counts of rape, and sentenced to .
Mette-Marit, a commoner and single mother, was 25 when she met Haakon at a music festival in 1999 — the beginning of an unlikely royal romance that began with a media uproar and ended up winning over much of the nation.
However, support for the Norwegian monarchy suffered a fallaccording to opinion polls, due to several scandals in which it was involved. Hoiby’s conviction on Monday followed a highly publicized trial that dominated national headlines.
The mother was also involved in the Epstein scandal and apologized to the King and Queen for his contact with the late American sex offender Jeffrey Epsteinwho he described as a friend, although he had severed ties with him several years before his death in 2019.
