Future Queen of Norway is placed on lung transplant list as doctors warn she could have just one year left to live
Norway’s future Queen could have just one year left to live as she has been placed on a lung transplant list amid her long battle with respiratory disease.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive disease that damages and scars lung tissue.
It can cause serious breathing problems, and there is no known cure.
She has suspended her official duties and a new medical update will only be provided after the lung transplant has taken place, the statement from Norway’s Royal Court said Friday.
After discharge from the hospital, ‘there will be a longer period of rehabilitation and training’ during which ‘there will initially be no updates.’
‘The Crown Princess has had a significant worsening of her pulmonary fibrosis over the past six months.
‘We see in the pictures that much more scar tissue has developed over the past year,’ lung specialist Are Holm at Oslo’s University Hospital is quoted by Norway’s public broadcaster NRK as saying.
He added that those on the list for lung transplantation are to be considered so sick that they likely only have one year left to live.
Earlier this month, the future queen made a rare public appearance for the constitution parade with her husband (right), 52, and son (left), Prince Sverre Magnus, 20 after Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby, was charged with rape and sexual assault in June last year
Earlier this month, the princess made a rare public appearance for the constitution parade with her husband (right), 52, and son (left), Prince Sverre Magnus, 20
Dr Holm explained that the hospital has guidelines for prioritising people on the waiting list and said it wasn’t possible to predict when she would be able to undergo the transplant, depending on when a ‘suitable organ becomes available.’
He also said there were currently short waiting times and that they ‘follow protocol exactly in this case.’
Princess Mette-Marit sadly revealed last week that the Crown Princess’s condition has deteriorated significantly, just ten days after she was pictured wearing a nasal cannula at the nation’s Constitution Day children’s parade on May 17.
‘The Crown Princess is seriously ill, and I think she has gotten a bit worse lately. So I am worried about her health,’ Crown Prince Haakon candidly said last week.
‘And these six months have gone pretty well, I think. But there are different phases. So we just have to try to solve it as best we can.’
When a reporter queried whether the future queen could be placed on the lung transplant list, Prince Haakon responded: ‘It’s up to the doctors, it’s a medical question.
‘So they’re the ones who decide when it should happen, when it’s right. But I think she’s gotten a lot worse lately, unfortunately.’
It comes amid what has been one of the toughest times for the Norwegian throne in modern times after Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby, was charged with rape and sexual assault in June last year.
He went on trial in Oslo in February for multiple offenses, including charges of rape. Høiby, 29, is the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and has no royal title or official duties.
Høiby, stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, has been under scrutiny since he was repeatedly arrested in 2024 on preliminary charges of bodily harm and criminal damage.
The charges included four counts of rape, four cases of sexual assault and two cases of bodily harm. The Norwegian court is due to deliver a verdict in Høiby’s rape trial on June 15.
Challenges intensified earlier this year again, when the future Queen’s seemingly intimate bond with her ‘sweetheart’, Jeffrey Epstein, came to light – with one email released in the Epstein Files suggesting she was still in contact with the late paedophile financier just months before his death.
While it was known that the Princess had corresponded with Epstein, the intimacy of the emails blows apart any suggestion that the pair were mere associates, with the late paedophile referring to her as ‘twisted’ and ‘not your typical royal’.
The princess was forced to apologise in February after she faced scrutiny over her contact with the dead sex offender.
Her communications and contacts with Epstein have put her in the spotlight, adding to the embarrassment of the royals.
The revelations, which the Crown Princess said were ’embarrassing’ and ‘showed poor judgement’, have put immense strain on the Norwegian monarchy, coming in the same week that Mette-Marit’s son went on trial for the rape of four women.
Last month, she made a rare public appearance for the constitution parade – one of the first times the royal has been spotted wearing an oxygen mask to aid her breathing at a public event.
Together with her husband, 52, and son, Prince Sverre Magnus, 20, the family watched the children’s parade from their residence, Skaugum in Oslo, Norway.
The trio put on a brave face, waving towards cameras with wide grins, amid an incredibly challenging time for the Norwegian royal family.
