King Haakon VIII's First Speech: A Father Remembered, and a Family Portrait in the Background
King Haakon VIII of Norway delivered his first speech as sovereign on 29 August 2026, a memorial address over his father King Harald V, who had died the previous morning at Rikshospitalet in Oslo at 06:35. The speech was broadcast at 19:00 from the Hall of Mirrors in the Royal Palace (Hello!; kongehuset.no).
Crown Prince Haakon became King Haakon VIII on Friday 28 August upon his father's death. King Harald V, who was 89, had reigned for 35 years — succeeding his own father, King Olav, at the 1991 succession known as Tronskiftet (Reuters; kongehuset.no).
In his address, the new king paid tribute to King Harald, describing him as "such a good dad" (Yahoo News). The minnetale — Norwegian for a memorial speech — followed a centuries-old pattern of Norwegian monarchs addressing the nation at the moment of succession. King Haakon VII, the new king's namesake and great-grandfather, delivered his own historic address in July 1940, answering "No" to a German ultimatum and setting out his view of a king's duty (kongehuset.no).
Before the speech, King Haakon and Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra received Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre at the syning — the traditional viewing of the deceased monarch's bier. The Preses of the Church of Norway, Olav Fykse Tveit, was also present. King Harald's bier had been brought from Rikshospitalet to the Royal Palace on 28 August at 18:30 (kongehuset.no; Reuters).
What drew particular attention during the broadcast was a family portrait visible in the Hall of Mirrors behind the king. The photograph, credited to NTB/AFP via Getty Images, shows a young Marius Borg Høiby resting his head on his stepfather's shoulder, with Queen Mette-Marit and half-siblings Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre also in frame (Hello!).
Marius Borg Høiby became King Haakon's stepson when his mother, Mette-Marit, married into the Norwegian royal family in 2001. He holds no royal title and is not in the line of succession. In June 2026, he was found guilty of two counts of rape and sentenced to four years in prison (Hello!).
The appearance of that portrait in the frame of a new king's first national address placed a private family image beside a moment of constitutional ceremony — the kind of detail that, whether intended or simply present, invites attention without explanation from the household.
On 30 August, King Haakon, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Queen Sonja and Prince Sverre Magnus attended a memorial service — a sørgegudstjeneste — at Asker church. The Church of Norway invited congregations across the country to hold similar services the same day (kongehuset.no).
King Haakon VIII grew up at Skaugum in Asker with his parents, then-Crown Prince Harald and Crown Princess Sonja, and his elder sister, who is two years his senior (kongehuset.no). The Asker church where the family gathered to mourn is in the same municipality where he spent his childhood.
