For years, we’ve covered a royal sideshow in Norway. Princess Martha is the only daughter of Norway’s King Harald V and Queen Sonja. Martha’s brother is Crown Prince Haakon. Well, Martha got a divorce from her first husband years ago, and that’s when she began stepping away from the Norwegian royal family and pursuing more spiritual and commercial interests. Those interests led her to LA, where she met Shaman Durek Verrett. They fell in love and began dating seriously. In 2022, they became engaged, and they married in 2024. Verrett has said publicly that he has not felt welcomed by Martha’s family, and Queen Sonja has also said some shady stuff about how “Americans have no idea what a kingdom is.”

After Martha and Durek’s wedding, she pretty much left Norway and left any kind of “royal role,” although I believe she’s still welcome at family events and possibly some state events. Well, maybe not anymore. It looks like Martha and Durek got their own “Netflix contract.” They agreed to a Netflix documentary called Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story. Here’s the trailer:

I think this looks funny? Like, yeah, I can totally understand all perspectives on this – he seems like a con artist, she seems codependent and delusional, and yet they actually seem well-suited for each other? They’re also old enough to live in their own little wacky world. The other thing is that it’s not like this *just* happened over the course of a few months – Martha and Durek have been together for six or seven years, they had a two-year engagement and, as the trailer shows, they coordinated their wedding with the palace. I actually think the Norwegian royals have been trying to put a bow on this, they’re actually trying to be as accepting and amenable as they can be in the situation, all while ensuring that Martha and Durek go off and do their own thing with as little drama as possible.

Photos courtesy of Netflix.