– Yes, I enjoyed doing official tasks, Princess Märtha Louise answers to Sweden’s Television (SVT) when she is asked if she would like to continue having the tasks for the royal house that she lost last autumn. – I have people with disabilities as my field, and I think that it has been very rewarding and wonderful. And I hope I’ve done a good job for them too. But thats how it is. And they’re going to get another one from the family, so that’s going to be well taken care of. – So you are sorry that you lost the missions? – Yes. I have thought it has been great to work with. In September last year, Princess Märtha Louise opened the new dog school for the Association of the Blind, one of the associations she was patron of. It was her last official assignment before she stopped representing the royal house. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB Hope she can get her assignments back Three months have passed since the royal family decided that Princess Märtha Louise should stop representing the Norwegian royal house and no longer be royal patron of organisations. – We have arrived at a solution which we hope and believe will give greater distance between the princess’s activities and the royal house, said King Harald when he met the press then. The princess herself did not want to answer the press’s questions and only commented on the matter on her own Instagram account. Princess Märtha Louise is interviewed by Anna Hedenmo in the program “Min sanning” on SVT. When she now appears in a major interview with Swedish TV in the program “Min sanning” (“My truth”), which is broadcast on SVT today, she opens up that she can make a “comeback” and once again represent the royal house. – Do you hope so? – Yes, if it turns out like that, I’ll say yes to it, she says. In the program, Princess Märtha Louise also talks about, among other things, that she: Controversies When the royal family last year felt compelled to sit down and discuss Princess Märtha Louise’s role in the royal household, the princess and her fiance Durek Verrett had received criticism several times for mixing up commercial interests and the title of princess. Verrett has also been criticized for several controversial statements. Among other things, it caused a great stir when he said that a medallion had contributed to his recovery from corona infection. In a video on Instagram, Durek Verrett told his over 260,000 followers that he had refused hospital treatment, and that a medallion had helped him to recover from corona. Photo: Screenshot from Durek Verrett’s Instagram – Everyone said I had to go to the hospital, and in the hospital they said I had to take all these chemicals and they wanted to hook me up to a breathing machine and stuff. I said no. The spirits say that you have what you need to recover, said Verrett in a video on Instagram. – I don’t know if you have seen the new “optimiser”? I used this one called “The lightbringer” to get the poison out of the system, he said and showed off the locket, which he sells on his website for over NOK 2,000. Last autumn, it came to a head when it became known that several of the patient organizations for which Princess Märtha Louise has been a royal patron, chose to break their collaboration with her. They reasoned that the princess’s brilliance had become a burden for them, rather than a helping hand, because several of Verrett’s statements contradicted their ethics and values. And they called for the princess to go out and clarify her vision. Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett have been a couple since 2019 and got engaged last year. Photo: Lise Åserud / NTB – Everything is taken a little out of context In the interview with SVT, Princess Märtha Louise now says that she believes Verrett’s statements are being taken out of context. – He claimed that a medallion, which he sells for just over NOK 2,000, made him recover from covid, says the presenter. – He didn’t say it that way, replies the princess. – What is he saying, then? – He said that … So, I’m not going to get into that polemic, because everything is taken a little out of context. And that’s how it always is with the press, I think. – But what about the medallion, then? – He said that with many other things that he also did, it also helped him. So it wasn’t like he was the one who healed him, he never said that, says Princess Märtha Louise. Princess Märtha Louise answers questions about several of Durek’s statements at Swedish SVT. When asked if she supports Verrett’s statements, the princess says that she does not stand for everything he stands for, but she otherwise does not want to enter into the discussion. – Are there statements like these that your parents have reacted to? – They have not reacted to it. They have reacted to a whole that the press has set in motion, which has meant that many have begun to question his position and what he says, says Princess Märtha Louise. – And to make it easier for everyone, they have chosen to do it this way. Or, we have chosen it together. The royal couple described last year that Durek Verrett had a long way to go in understanding the royal house and its role. – He thought he could do what he wanted without it affecting us at all, said the king. Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB She believes that she had to stop representing the royal house because of something her fiance has said – or because of the way he is perceived – not because of anything she herself has done. Princess Märtha Louise wonders if she is being punished for what her fiancé says, because she is a woman. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB The princess questions whether the same thing would have happened if she had been a man. – It feels a bit difficult in a time where women’s rights are so strong, and we women are on the “equal line”, as it were, as men. But do we really do that? Would it have been the same if I had been a man? I do not believe. – Then you still had your assignments? – You don’t know that, but… – But that’s how you think? – Yes, I wonder if it would have been like that. But I don’t know. Communications manager Guri Varpe at Slottet tells news that the royal house does not want to comment on what comes out in the interview. Princess Märtha Louise has reacted several times to the press and what she believes is a hunt for headlines and clicks. In a post on Instagram before Christmas, she said that the media pressure she and Durek Verrett have experienced in the past year reminded her of what Ari Behn, to whom she was married for 14 years before they divorced in 2016, experienced. Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn married in Nidaros Cathedral in 2002. In 2016, the news came that they were to divorce. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix “I’ve been involved in this before. The press spares no means to get an article that can get them clicks. They did the same to Ari. They never gave up, kept going and going. He pursued. Criticized and criticized. He wasn’t going to get away with anything. The press self-criticized this when he was dead. I hope they don’t wait as long to take care of themselves this time…”, she wrote. The writer and artist Ari Behn died on Christmas Day 2019. The family stated that he had taken his own life. The friend spoke to Ari Behn on Christmas Eve: Tried to get him to persevere Princess Märtha Louise says in the SVT program that the person she is with is always criticized. She claims that it dawned on Behn, who received praise and a dice roll of 6 for his debut book in 1999, that he “never again received good criticism” of either books or art when he was married to her. Eldest daughter Maud Angelica Behn gave a moving speech during Ari Behn’s funeral in 2019. Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB – But is the press responsible for his death, asks the presenter. – They said so themselves, in part. His mental health depended a lot on him getting thin in the media. But I’m not saying it was anyone’s fault. It’s always how you take things, replies Princess Märtha Louise. She further claims: – The press did self-criticize after he died, that they were perhaps a bit harsh on him, and that he only received criticism and was actually a very nice person. They never said that when he was with me. Then he was just a peacock and arrogant. Princess Märtha Louise also says that Durek Verrett has been met with racism, and that she now sees Norway in a “totally new way”. The princess tells how she experienced the media’s treatment of Ari Behn. The Editors’ Association reacts strongly Reidun Kjelling Nybø, secretary general of the Norwegian Editors’ Association, reacts strongly to the princess’s statements. She emphasizes that the princess is free to have strong opinions about the Norwegian press and to criticize the media’s coverage. – But she also has to expect reactions when she goes as far as she does in this interview, Nybø says to news. – The way I interpret her, she largely blames the Norwegian media for Ari Behn taking his own life. It is deeply appalling, highly unfair and completely undocumented. Nybø rejects that the press has self-criticized this after Behn’s death. – That is not true at all, she says. Nybø points out that there was a discussion after Behn’s death about whether the media coverage was too massive or gave a glorified impression of suicide. – Here there were a number of editors who took self-criticism. But no one, as far as I can remember, has meant and said that they themselves contributed to the suicide, says Nybø and points out that she has followed this closely. She also adds: – I note that the princess mixes up critical statements from the media’s sources and the media themselves, and that she also makes it sound as if it is the media’s fault that she renounced her official duties last autumn. It is very serious and very startling that she chooses to shift all the blame onto the media in this way. The paths the princess has chosen in recent years have been paved with controversial and non-traditional choices. The so-called angelic school, spirituality and high sensitivity. – I am probably the one in Norway who has received the most criticism of all, I think, she says to SVT. – Throughout Norway? – Yes I believe. Up through all the years, yes, Princess Märtha Louise replies matter-of-factly. – I look at others who are used to being in the media, and who perhaps for a short period receive the same criticism, and it lasts very briefly. 3-4 days. And they have to go to therapy and stuff like that. And I think: “Oh, is this really that hard”. Because I’ve been in it so long, so I’ve become immune. But realize that I might be quite strong, then. Princess Märtha Louise met a full press corps when she held a press conference about the so-called angel school in 2010. Photo: Mathias Oppedal / news Glad she won’t inherit the throne When Princess Märtha Louise was born in 1971 as the then future royal couple’s first child, there were only boys who could inherit the throne in Norway. In 1990, the Constitution was amended. It was then decided that the eldest child would inherit the throne, regardless of whether it was a boy or a girl. But the change did not have retroactive effect, and Princess Märtha Louise’s little brother Haakon remained the one who was to become Norway’s future monarch. Despite the fact that Märtha Louise is the royal couple’s eldest child, it is her younger brother Crown Prince Haakon who will inherit the throne. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB – I thought it was quite “nice”, actually, she says in “Swedish” to SVT. – It is difficult to be heir to the throne and be there for the people and at the same time own it yourself. You have to go through a lot to want to choose that path. You have to sacrifice a lot. What you want to do in life, what is right for you. She laughs when she is asked how things would have gone if the constitutional amendment had been given retroactive effect, and she had been the one to inherit the throne. – I don’t think it would have gone so well, maybe. I am very happy that Haakon is crown prince, and he will be an absolutely wonderful king. In the UK, another “number two” has been making headlines and reactions recently. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan stopped working as royals in 2020 and moved to the United States. Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan shocked many with their interview with Oprah Winfrey. Since then, their accusations against the British press and royal family have increased. Photo: HARPO PRODUCTIONS / Reuters In interviews and in his own book, the English prince has attacked both the British royal house and the British press. Princess Märtha Louise says she understands the couple. – And in England the press is even worse than here, she says. – Do you understand that they left? – Yes I do. And if he thinks he can save Meghan that way, I think it is very wise of him, says the princess to SVT. – Do you also want to leave your home country? – I do not know. We’ll see. You never know what life will bring, I’ve learned that.
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