Last week, the scandalous Princess Mette-Marit became Norway’s Queen Mette-Marit after her father-in-law passed away. She’s not well enough to be smug about it though. Mette-Marit was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis years ago, and her health was in steady decline throughout 2025 and the first half of 2026. In June, she received a lung transplant. Since then, she had been quietly recovering out of the spotlight. Since her father-in-law King Harald passed away last week, Mette-Marit has only been seen once (I believe) – she attended the procession which also happened to include her adjudicated rapist son, Marius Borg Hoiby. Mette-Marit was scheduled to appear alongside her husband, King Haakon, on Tuesday for his official oath. She withdrew from the appearance at the last minute, and people learned that she had been hospitalized due to transplant complications.

King Haakon of Norway has taken his oath as monarch, but one important person was missing from the ceremony. On Tuesday, Sept. 1 — four days after the death of his father, King Harald — the new monarch took an Oath of Allegiance to the constitution before the Storting, the supreme legislature and parliament of Norway. The oath has been in the country’s constitution since 1814.

King Haakon, 53, who automatically became King following his father’s death, stated, “I promise and swear that I will govern the Kingdom of Norway in accordance with its Constitution and Laws; so help me God, the Almighty and Omniscient.”

The new King was accompanied at his ceremony by his eldest child and heir, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 22, as well as his son, Prince Sverre Magnus, 20, and his mother, Queen Sonja, 89,

However, his wife, Queen Mette-Marit, was absent for the important moment. The news that the new Queen would not be attending the ceremony was announced just a few hours before it was about to begin, with a pulmonologist from the National Hospital revealing that her absence was due to health complications related to the lung transplant she underwent in June.

The pulmonologist said in a statement, “It is not uncommon for complications to occur after a lung transplant. The Queen has had complications on some occasions since the operation, including today. As a result, the Queen must be observed throughout the day. The Queen will therefore unfortunately not be able to attend the swearing-in ceremony in the Storting today.”

[From People]

It’s interesting that they got Mette-Marit’s doctor to come out and say that complications were quite normal and there’s no real emergency. Haakon’s behavior said something else – just hours after the oath, he was photographed driving over to Oslo University Hospital to look in on his wife. Granted, I sort of wondered/predicted that something like this would happen – as soon as King Harald died, the international media put Mette-Marit’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein front-and-center for Haakon’s accession. She’s literally an Epstein-Class Queen Consort. Few people wanted Mette-Marit for any of these big royal setpieces, so yeah, the obvious choice was “Mette-Marit is in such bad shape, she could not attend.”

King Harald’s funeral has been scheduled for Wednesday, September 9th. I’m curious to see who turns up among the other European monarchies – I feel certain that Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark will be very well-represented. Everyone’s waiting to hear who the Windsors will send, because it’s pretty much a sure thing that Prince William will be too lazy to say yes. I also wonder if Mette-Marit will skip it too.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid, Cover Images.