Talks underway with ‘rebel royals’

Norway’s royal family mostly clammed up last week when a highly controversial Netflix documentary involving them was released internationally. Now Crown Prince Haakon has opened up a bit, and tried to smile through the storm.

The crown prince took a few minutes this week to talk to reporters while he and his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, were on an official tour of Hemsedal and Hallingdal in the mountains of Southern Norway. While he would have preferred to talk about the visit, the local culture and the people he was meeting, the topic quickly turned to the latest trouble stirred up by his older sister, Princess Martha Louise, and her new American husband Durek Verrett.

The Netflix documentary, which refers to the couple as “rebel royals,” has sparked outrage among many Norwegians who feel it unfairly portrays Martha Louise’s parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, and Crown Prince Haakon as being unaware of racism and failing to help Verrett, a self-proclaimed shaman, adjust to life in Norway. Verrett exclaims excitedly during the documentary that “I’m gonna be a royal,” but clearly had no clue about the importance of the monarchy in Norway, the role of the royal family or how to conduct himself at the palace.

Verrett went so far as to claim that King Harald and Crown Prince Haakon “don’t know what racism is,” even though both are highly educated and have long stressed the value of diversity and the need to acknowledge and accept Norway’s own modern multi-ethnic society. Many felt that especially King Harald, age 88, was unjustly criticized and didn’t deserve Verrett’s remarks, while the king’s daughter sat next to him nodding and seeming to condone his outbursts.

The harshest criticism, though, involved how the princess and Verret continue to exploit her royal title commercially. That’s in violation of an agreement she had made with the royal family back in 2019.

“We want clearer lines between the royal family and Princess Martha Louise’s and Derek Verrett’s (business) operations,” Crown Prince Haakon told reporters on Tuesday. “We want to be clear and responsibile, and will both listen and say what we think.”

Asked how the royals can better enforce their agreement with Martha Louise and Verrett, given a string of their earlier violations, the crown prince said he just hopes they’ll do better. He noted that the couple themselves have expressed some regrets about the Netflix program and that they want to maintain “the integrity of the agreement we have from 2022,” when it was reinforced.

“You’re pointing to the challenge (they face with the agreement),” Crown Prince Haakon told NRK, “but we don’t have a good alternative to it. “We have to figure this out. We have already begun to talk about it in this round, and we will continue the conversation.”

He declined to express his own opinion about the documentary, saying “I think I’ll avoid judging it, but I think it unfortunately doesn’t distinguish well enough between the royal family’s operations and the commercial side of Princess Martha Louise’s and Durek Verrett’s operations.”

Crown Prince Haakon expressed gratitude for the outpouring of public support for his elderly parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, after the documentary came out. “I’ve noticed that there are many who have said many nice things about the royal couple afterwards, so I think it’s nice that they’re getting support,” he said.

Several editorial writers, authors and commentators in Norway have called on King Harald to take away his daughter’s “princess” title, something only he can do. The monarch still seems reluctant to do that, no matter how many times his daughter has hurt or embarrassed the royal family over the years. King Harald has so far said only that since she remains his daughter, she remains a princess, even though she’s not supposed to exploit that for more publicity or personal gain.

NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund