Norwegian Princess Gets Ready To Wed An American Shaman

Princess Martha Louise, the eldest child of the Norwegian king, will wed American self-described shaman Durek Verret on Saturday in a charming southern Norwegian village.

The couple’s behavior has drawn harsh criticism, and public support for the Scandinavian royal family is declining as a result of unfavorable stories about a misbehaving family member who may face preliminary domestic abuse charges.

Martha Louise, 52, and Verret, a Californian who describes himself as a sixth-generation shaman, have made news for their unconventional views. Although she is fourth in line for the Norwegian throne, she declared in 2022 that she would work more closely with her American fiancé and would no longer formally represent the Norwegian royal house.

The princess, who has kept her title, claims that she can speak with angels, while Verret, 49, says he can speak with a variety of spirits and that he wears a pendant that can heal illnesses and fight off spells.

They got engaged in 2022.

Verret will not hold any formal positions or royal titles after they get married. Verret and Martha Louise reached an agreement in 2019 that forbade Verret from using her connection to the royal house or her title for commercial purposes.

However, earlier this year, Martha Louise labelled bottles of gin with her title and launched the brand in time for the wedding, defying King Harald V’s directive that she should not profit from her royal status. The label was eventually changed. The couple also sold their wedding photo rights to a British celebrity magazine and the film rights to Netflix.

The Norwegian media protested the sales, claiming that they violated customs in the area. The duo uses social media to promote themselves while frequently criticizing the media.

In the meantime, Marius Borg Hoiby, the stepson of Crown Prince Haakon and the eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, is suspected of committing both criminal damage and bodily harm. He has admitted that on August 6, when he was temporarily arrested in Oslo, he was under the influence of cocaine. Son of Mette-Marit’s previous relationship, Borg Hoiby is unattached and has no official position in the royal family.

According to Haakon, it’s “a serious matter.” The impending royal wedding and the scandal have severely damaged public support for the Norwegian monarchy.

King Harald has remained silent about the issues. A Norwegian political party known for its anti-royalist stance is using the recent scandals to campaign for a proposal to change the constitution and abolish the monarchy.

“These cases show some of the fundamental challenges with the monarchy,” Andreas Sjalg Unneland, an MP for the Socialist Left Party, told The Associated Press about the royal wedding and the Borg Hoiby case.

“Do we have to wait for a scandal that is so big that we abolish the monarchy, or can we give it a dignified ending?” Sjalg Unneland asked, adding that the country should hold a referendum on the issue. The proposal, expected to be tabled next month, is not likely to gain support from other MPs. Saturday’s wedding will be officiated following the Norwegian Church’s wedding liturgy.

While it is a private event and no guest list has been made public, the royal household in Oslo says Harald, Queen Sonja, the heir to the throne Haakon, and Crown Princess Mette-Marit will attend. Norway’s future king and queen will be joined by their children. Borg Hoiby will not attend. Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel also are reportedly attending the ceremony in Geiranger, 165 miles north of Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city.

Denmark’s King Frederik and his Australian-born wife Queen Mary, however, will not attend. Reality stars, media influencers, and TV personalities will round out the ceremony’s guests in scenic Geiranger, which sits on the shores of its eponymous fjord designated as a Unesco World Heritage Site. The Norwegian royal yacht, Norge, has anchored there, surrounded by mountains and rivers. The king and queen will stay on the yacht, the royal household in Oslo said. Martha Louise has three children from her previous marriage to Ari Behn, whom she divorced in 2017 after 14 years of marriage.

Although she is the first child of 87-year-old Harald, her brother, who is two years younger than her, will succeed their father as king. The Norwegian constitution was altered in 1990 to allow the firstborn, regardless of gender, to take precedence in the line of succession.

The change does not apply retroactively and Haakon remains first in line to the throne. His oldest child, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, will one day ascend the Norwegian throne.

Source: The Associated Press