Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has come through a lung transplant procedure and is now in recovery, according to a statement released Wednesday by the royal household.
The 52-year-old is married to Crown Prince Haakon, who is next in line for the Norwegian throne. She was first diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis back in 2018 — a chronic lung condition that causes scarring tissue to form in the lungs, reducing the body’s ability to absorb oxygen.
On June 5, Oslo University Hospital announced that Mette-Marit had been added to a transplant waiting list after her health took a serious turn for the worse. At that point, doctors indicated she likely had no more than a year to live without the operation.
Oslo University Hospital Professor Are Holm, in a statement released through the palace, noted that “like all newly transplanted patients, the crown princess will remain at the hospital for several weeks to come.”
Crown Prince Haakon had spoken publicly about his wife’s declining health back in December, saying the family had observed changes in her condition and that she was having increasing difficulty breathing.
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere previously commended the crown princess for being candid about her illness, saying her openness could provide comfort and help to others facing similar health challenges.
Mette-Marit’s path to royalty was far from traditional. She was 25 years old, a single mother without royal ties, when she first crossed paths with Haakon at a music festival in 1999. What began as a romance that drew intense media scrutiny eventually earned the admiration of most of the Norwegian public.
