Norway's King Harald V Dies at 89, Son Haakon Becomes King
Harald reigned for 35 years and was remembered for modernizing the monarchy, leaving behind Queen Sonja and their two children.
Norway's King Harald V died peacefully on Friday morning at the university hospital in Oslo, at age 89, the Norwegian royal court announced. The throne automatically passed to his son, Crown Prince Haakon, who now becomes King Haakon VIII.
Harald reigned over Norway for a full 35 years, having ascended to the throne on January 17, 1991, following the death of his father, King Olav V. He was the oldest reigning monarch in Europe, and had recently been hospitalized with a bacterial blood infection.
A King Who Opened Up the Monarchy
Harald was the first Norwegian monarch born in the country since the 14th century, and is remembered as a popular, modern king who helped make the royal institution more open and less formal. In 1968 he married Sonja Haraldsen, a woman without royal lineage — an unusual step for a royal family at the time, but one that later became a symbol of the monarchy's modernization.
He leaves behind Queen Sonja, his wife of nearly 58 years, their daughter Princess Märtha Louise, their son, now King Haakon VIII, and six grandchildren. The royal flag over the palace was lowered to half-mast, and residents have gathered outside the palace for days to leave flowers in his memory.
MKNews Hub · World · August 31, 2026