Norway's New King Haakon VIII Addresses the Nation After Father's Death
King Haakon VIII delivered his first speech as Norway's monarch on Saturday 29 August 2026, a memorial address over his father King Harald V, who died the previous morning at 06:35 in the National Hospital, Rikshospitalet, in Oslo. He was 89. The speech was broadcast at 19:00, capping a day that began with the Norwegian Royal Court's formal confirmation of the death and the constitutional mechanism it triggered — under Norway's rules of succession, the next in line accedes to the throne at the same moment the previous monarch dies, so Haakon became king immediately upon his father's passing Kongehuset.
King Harald V had been hospitalised since 17 August with hemolytic anemia, a condition in which red blood cells are destroyed faster than the body can replace them. His condition deteriorated to critical before his death on 28 August, according to the Royal Court Hello Magazine.
The transition played out in the formalities the Norwegian constitution requires. King Haakon VIII, accompanied by Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, held the first condolence audiences at the Royal Palace with the Speaker of Parliament, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the President of the Church of Norway — the three senior office-holders whose presence marks the transfer of authority from one reign to the next. Queen Mette-Marit and Prince Sverre Magnus attended the lying-in-state at the Royal Palace in Oslo Hello Magazine.
Memorial services are confirmed for Sunday across multiple locations in Norway. King Haakon VIII, Queen Sonja, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus will attend a ceremony at 11:00 a.m. at Asker Church, near Skaugum Palace, the royal residence outside Oslo. Princess Märtha Louise, the late king's daughter, is understood to be present with her three daughters — Maud Angelica, Leah Isadora and Emma Tallulah. Her husband, Durek Verrett, is not expected to attend; he is recovering from a kidney transplant undergone a few days before the ceremony.
Queen Mette-Marit will be absent from the Asker service. She is recovering from a lung transplant she underwent in June and has limited participation in official events, the Royal Court indicated Hello Magazine.
A state funeral for King Harald V has not yet been announced.
There is a symmetry in Haakon's first address that Norwegian court-watchers will recognise. When King Olav V died in January 1991, the new King Harald V gave his first speech as monarch on 18 January, at the moment of accession, after the death was announced in an extraordinary Council of State at the Royal Palace at midnight Kongehuset. Father and son each began their reigns with words for the predecessor who had just left it.
King Harald V reigned for 35 years. He succeeded his father Olav V in 1991 and was the first Norwegian-born monarch in nearly 600 years at the time of his accession.
