Norway crown princess awaits lung transplant amid ‘dramatic deterioration’ of health

Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit speaks during the Fosse Lecture at the Royal Palace, in Oslo, Norway, Thursday, April 23, 2026. (Javad Parsa/NTB Scanpix via AP, Pool)

OSLO - Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been placed on a waiting list for a lung transplant after a significant deterioration in her health that likely gave her only a year left to live without the surgery, her doctors said on Friday.

The 52-year-old wife of Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to the Norwegian throne, was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, a chronic disease that causes scarring in the lungs and leads to a reduced oxygen uptake.

Oslo’s University Hospital in December said the time was approaching when a transplant must be performed, and that the crown princess had not yet been placed on Norway’s list of possible recipients.

Around one year left to live

But in recent months there had been a “dramatic deterioration” in Mette-Marit’s condition, giving her only around a year left to live, Oslo University Hospital Professor Are Holm told a press conference on Friday.

“It is a major and demanding operation, and you have to be sick enough to need it, while at the same time healthy enough to withstand the surgery and the difficult course of treatment,” Holm told reporters.

The royal palace in a statement said Mette-Marit’s condition was “life-threatening.”

Crown Prince Haakon earlier this week cut short an official visit to Japan, returning home to be with his wife, while the couple’s daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, flew back to Oslo from Australia where she is a student.

Around 30-35 lung transplants are performed in Norway every year, and the crown princess joins the existing queue like any other patient, the hospital said. The current waiting list is short, it added.

To be successful, a transplant must respect specific criteria, Holm said.

“It has to be the right size, it must be the correct blood type, and we have to make sure that the recipient doesn’t have antibodies against the tissue type of the organ,” Holm said.

“It’s about getting the right organ to the right person. This means that many factors have to align to increase the chances of success.”

Up to 90 per cent of lung transplant patients in Norway survive the first year after surgery, while around 55 per cent are still alive after 10 years, according to the hospital’s own data.

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere has praised the crown princess for being open about her condition and has said this could help others suffering from similar problems.

The crown prince and princess are postponing the celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary, which was planned for August this year, the palace added.

Mette-Marit was 25, an unmarried single mother and a commoner when she met Haakon at a music festival in 1999, the beginning of an unlikely royal romance that started with a media furore and ended up winning over the bulk of the nation.

Reporting by Gwladys Fouche and Terje Solsvik, editing by Sharon Singleton, William Maclean.