Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway has been placed on the waiting list for a transplant due to a “life-threatening chronic lung disease,” the country’s royal family has announced.
The 52-year-old princess will no longer be able to fulfill her duties as a working member of the royal family, according to a press statement released by the palace on Friday. The princess, who is married to Haakon, heir to the Norwegian throne, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic progressive lung disease with a poor prognosis, in 2018.
“The progression of the Crown Princess’ lung disease is serious,” Ale Holm, a consultant pulmonologist at Oslo’s Rikshospitalet, said in a statement. “After a comprehensive medical evaluation, she has been placed on the waiting list to receive a lung transplant as soon as a suitable donor becomes available.”
The palace announced that Mette-Marit will be unable to carry out any official duties while she waits for a donor.
Her condition also affects her husband, the Crown Prince, who returned early from an official visit to Japan this week, Reuters reported. The couple have postponed their silver wedding anniversary celebrations in August, and Mette-Marit will not be taking part in a tour of Norway scheduled for September.
“The Crown Prince will be adjusting his future programs in order to spend more time with the Crown Princess,” the palace said in a statement. He also plans to limit the amount of time he spends traveling domestically and internationally before and after the surgery.
The couple’s daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, has returned to Norway from Australia where she studied abroad. She will spend the fall semester at the University of Oslo, the palace said. His older brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, will begin his studies in Europe this fall and will return to Norway “whenever the situation requires,” the palace said.
Mette Marit was a single mother when she met Haakon at a music festival in 1999. Two years later, the couple wed in Oslo Cathedral in front of 800 guests and millions of television viewers, and she became Crown Princess.
The royal family has been in the headlines frequently in recent months. Marius Borg Hojbi, the eldest son of the crown prince’s previous relationship, is on trial for rape and no verdict has been handed down yet. Meanwhile, the princess herself has become the focus of another controversy, with the release of Epstein’s files revealing that she previously had a close relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
