The King of Norway is unwell. King Harald V, 89, has seen his condition “worsen over the weekend,” the Norwegian Royal Palace said on Sunday, August 23. The monarch has been in hospital for nearly a week at Oslo University Hospital over complications linked to a blood disease.
Harald V is Europe’s oldest monarch. He has hemolytic anemia, a blood disorder in which red blood cells are destroyed faster than normal.
“The King is receiving antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection in the blood and has responded well to this treatment,” the Norwegian Royal Palace said on Sunday. In recent days several members of his family, including his son Crown Prince Haakon, who is acting as regent in his absence, have taken turns at his bedside.
He was admitted last Monday because of fluid retention caused by his cortisone treatment, and was placed on sick leave for two weeks. Harald has been on the Norwegian throne since 1991. He has had numerous health problems for several years, but has always ruled out stepping down.
The royal family has been hit by several scandals
These fresh health problems come as the Norwegian royal family has been caught up in several scandals in recent months, notably involving Crown Princess Mette-Marit, 53, who herself has an incurable lung disease and received a lung transplant in July.
Documents released in the United States at the end of January showed her frequent, and at times intimate, correspondence with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014, after the American financier had already been convicted.
The princess has also had to deal with the legal troubles of her son, Marius Borg Høiby, who was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes and 32 other charges, including violence against a former partner. He has appealed the conviction.