Norway’s King Harald, 89, hospitalised with blood disorder as Crown Prince Haakon takes over as regent

The treatment meant to bring King Harald’s blood disorder under control has sadly ended up putting him in hospital. Norway’s 89-year-old monarch has spent recent weeks on cortisone for a rare blood disease, and it is the drug’s side effects, not the illness itself, that have now put his son Haakon in charge as regent.

Cortisone side effects trigger the hospital admission

King Harald was admitted to the National Hospital in Oslo on Monday August 17, after weeks of cortisone treatment for haemolytic anaemia caused a build-up of fluid in his body.

The Norwegian Royal House said in a statement that in recent weeks the King had been treated with cortisone for the blood disease, and that this had led to fluid retention requiring hospital care. No discharge date has been given, but the palace confirmed Harald will remain on sick leave for two weeks. 

Haemolytic anaemia occurs when red blood cells are destroyed faster than the body can replace them, leaving patients tired, short of breath and, in some cases, needing hospital treatment to manage complications from the medication used to control it.

Crown Prince Haakon steps in as regent again

Crown Prince Haakon has taken over Harald’s official and state duties as regent for the length of his father’s sick leave, a role the heir has performed many times before during the King’s recurring health problems. 

Haakon had recently scaled back some public engagements while his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit recovered from a lung transplant in June, three years after she was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis. The couple’s daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, moved home from Sydney to Oslo to support her mother during that time. 

A run of health scares stretching back to Spain and Malaysia

This is not Harald’s first brush with hospital treatment in recent years. In February, he was treated for a skin infection while on a winter holiday in Spain’s Canary Islands, a popular destination with the Norwegian royals.

Two years earlier, he collapsed while on holiday in Malaysia and was fitted with a temporary pacemaker there before receiving a permanent one after returning home to Norway.

The wider Norwegian royal family has had a difficult year

Harald’s hospitalisation adds to a run of health problems across Norway’s royal family this year. Queen Sonja, also 89, was hospitalised in May with heart problems, and the King’s sister, Princess Astrid, was admitted with heart failure the same month.

For Norway’s many expats and holidaymakers along Spain’s coasts, who follow the royal family’s health closely, the King’s repeated hospital stays have become a familiar, if unwelcome, pattern.

Europe’s oldest reigning monarch

Harald has reigned since January 17 1991, when he succeeded his father, King Olav V, making him Europe’s oldest reigning monarch at 89. He remains widely popular after 35 years on the throne, and the palace has given no indication that his current treatment will change his role beyond the two-week sick leave.