Norway's Queen Mette-Marit Misses Parliamentary Gala Dinner After Lung Transplant
Queen Mette-Marit of Norway did not attend the first parliamentary gala dinner of her husband's reign. She is still recovering from a lung transplant she had in June, and the palace says she is not expected to take on official duties until next summer.
Her husband is now King Haakon VIII. Norway is a constitutional monarchy, which means the king serves as head of state and the country's elected politicians run the government. The king's role is mostly ceremonial, but the events he attends still matter to the country.
According to Town & Country, the queen also missed the ceremony in which Haakon took his oath to the constitution, the formal start of his reign. She withdrew shortly before the swearing-in because of complications from the transplant. She also missed the Opening of Parliament, the yearly event where the king addresses the Storting, Norway's parliament in Oslo.
Their daughter, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, stepped in. She stood in for her mother at the oath, the Opening of Parliament and the gala dinner. Ingrid Alexandra is first in line to the throne, and she is set to return to her studies in Sydney, Australia, in February.
The queen was diagnosed with chronic pulmonary fibrosis in 2018. The condition causes scarring in the lungs that makes it harder to breathe. Her health worsened over time, and in June 2026 the palace said she had been placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant, according to Reuters. The transplant followed later that month.
The Norwegian palace has said she is still in rehabilitation, the long process of rebuilding strength after major surgery. It said she will have no official program at first, and that will last until next summer. Even so, she attended the funeral of King Harald, Haakon's father, earlier this year. Town & Country reported that she came to the funeral even though she had been expected to stay out of public view for six months after her transplant.
King Haakon gave his first speech as monarch at a dinner for the Storting. Afterward, LHL, a Norwegian patient group for people with heart and lung disease, said the king had put into words something many people recognize in themselves, according to Aftenposten.
For American readers, the setup is familiar in one way and strange in another. The United States has no royal family, but many families have a parent who has to step back from work for a long recovery. Norway's royal household is dealing with the same kind of pressure in public, with a new king, a queen who is recovering, and a daughter taking on more of the visible work.
The palace has not said when the queen will return to a full schedule beyond the timeline it has already given.
