Haakon automatically succeeded to the throne Friday after his father, King Harald, passed away peacefully earlier in the day. He is due to swear an oath before the government later Friday.

He has increasingly seen his family's affairs plastered across front pages: his wife's lung transplant, revelations about her ties to convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a rape conviction against his stepson, and the escapades of his eccentric sister and her American self-proclaimed shaman husband.

Haakon, a tall, bearded and stately 53-year-old, is as modest and measured as most Norwegians -- reflecting a society that shuns opulence and ostentation.

Married to Mette-Marit, a commoner who was a single mother, Haakon has focused his attention on issues that concern many of his generation, including environmental protection and fighting racism and homophobia.  

"It's important that we protect who we are and for Norway to be a country where we're allowed to love and be with whoever we want," he said the day after a bloody attack against the gay community in Oslo in June 2022.

Born on July 20, 1973, the prince attended state-run daycare and schools, in line with the wishes of his parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, who were keen to see him grow up among "ordinary" Norwegians.

After secondary school he spent three years in the navy, where he served primarily as an officer on a torpedo boat.

He went on to earn a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of California in Berkeley and a master's in international politics at the London School of Economics.

Scandals

Haakon is a fan of skiing, surfing, and windsurfing, as well as music.

It was at a 1999 music festival at Kristiansand, in southern Norway, that he met his future wife, whose tumultuous past made headlines in the Scandinavian country.

At the time, Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby was a single mother of a young son named Marius, the fruit of an earlier relationship with a man who had a heavy criminal record, including assault and cocaine possession.

"My teenage rebellion was stronger than most people's," she acknowledged to reporters ahead of her August 2001 marriage to Haakon.

Norwegians quickly saw beyond her wild past. The couple went on to have a daughter expected to one day be queen, Ingrid Alexandra, born in 2004, and a son Sverre Magnus, in 2005.   

But storm clouds were building on the horizon. 

His sister Martha-Louise, a fan of alternative therapies, has repeatedly been accused of exploiting her princess title for commercial purposes. 

She made headlines again by marrying a self-proclaimed shaman, Durek Verrett, in 2024, described as a dangerous "charlatan" by his critics. 

Then his stepson Marius, whom Haakon has always treated like his own son, was arrested in August 2024 and sentenced to four years in prison in June 2026 for rape and assault. He has appealed.

Just days before the conviction, Marius' mother, Haakon's wife Mette-Marit, underwent a lung transplant for the pulmonary fibrosis with which she was diagnosed in 2018.

That came just months after the Norwegian media in February 2026 published troubling revelations about Mette-Marit's friendship with Epstein in the early 2010s.

Even though the American financier had already been convicted of soliciting a minor, Mette-Marit had been in frequent contact with him, their emails indicating a close relationship.

She later said she had been "manipulated and deceived".

"When you get married, it's for better or for worse," Haakon remarked in March 2026 during a televised interview with the couple about the Epstein revelations.

The scandals have tarnished the royal family's image and weakened its support in the Scandinavian country, though it remains broadly popular.

Fairytale Queen beset by woe

The life of Norway's new Queen Mette-Marit was once considered a fairytale, but a lung transplant, her son's rape conviction and her friendship with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have made it anything but that in recent years.

The tale of the single mother from humble beginnings, whose chance encounter with then-Crown Prince Haakon propelled her to the heart of the monarchy, won the affection of Norwegians.

She was long seen as the embodiment of a modern monarchy capable of shaking up convention. But the 53-year-old now ascends the throne alongside her husband, following the death of King Harald on Friday, with a tarnished image.

Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby was born on August 19, 1973 to a journalist father with alcohol abuse problems and a bank clerk mother in the southern town of Kristiansand, in Protestant Norway's "Bible Belt".

She once described herself as "the most conscientious teenager in the world" until she turned 16 and went to Australia for a year abroad with her school.

The transformative experience saw her break free and reinvent herself.

Upon her return to Norway, she shaved her head, got engaged to a man who introduced her to Oslo's house music scene -- where she experimented with hash and ecstasy, according to an unofficial biography -- and at 24 gave birth to Marius, after a brief romance with another man.

"My teenage rebellion was stronger than most people's," she acknowledged to reporters ahead of her August 2001 marriage to Haakon.

"I was part of a scene where a lot of boundaries were... crossed," she said.

She had met the then-crown prince two years earlier at a music festival.

Her CV was thin at the time, but the striking young waitress won the prince's heart. The Norwegian people, seeing her reserved demeanour in public, quickly looked beyond her wild past. 

She and Haakon went on to have two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, now 22, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 20.

Health woes

But the fairytale soon took a tragic turn.

In 2018, the couple announced that Mette-Marit had been diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, which causes scarring of the lungs and shortness of breath.

Her illness required her to cut back her public engagements in the ensuing years, and in June 2026, at age 52, she underwent a lung transplant.

The risky surgery came just days before her 29-year-old son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, was convicted of rape and assault and sentenced to four years in prison after a highly publicised trial in Oslo. He has appealed.

Adding further to her woes were revelations in Norwegian media in early 2026 detailing her frequent exchanges with Epstein, exposing an unexpected relationship that shocked the Scandinavian country.

In 2011, three years after his first conviction, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein that she had "googled" him, adding "it didn't look too good" and ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.

In 2012, when Epstein told her he was in Paris "on (a) wife hunt", she replied that the French capital is "good for adultery" and "Scandis (are) better wife material".

In 2013, she stayed at his Florida home for four days.

She apologised to Norwegians, saying she "showed poor judgment".

"I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing," she said.

King Harald defended her, saying she had broken no laws and noting that she had ended the friendship.

But the damage was done.

Several polls showed Norwegians no longer deemed her suitable to become queen one day, dealing a blow to the monarchy.

Waht happens next

Here are the main steps for succession laid out by the country's constitution and  protocol. 

- The heir to the throne and crown prince, 53-year-old Haakon who has served as regent during his father's illness, automatically becomes king.

- Haakon summoned the government to a meeting at the palace to formally inform them of the monarch's death. Haakon has taken Haakon VIII as he's official name.

He has chosen the same motto as he's father King Harald V,  his grandfather and great-grandfather: "All for Norway".

- In coming days, Haakon will swear an oath before parliament. According to the constitution, he must declare: "I promise and swear that I will govern the Kingdom of Norway in accordance with the Constitution and the laws. So help me God, almighty and all-knowing."

In 1991, King Harald V took the oath four days after the death of his father, King Olav V.

- Haakon's daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 22, in turn automatically becomes crown princess. She will be able to stand in as regent for Haakon if necessary.

– The date of King Harald's funeral has not yet been made public. His father, King Olav, was buried on January 30, 1991, 13 days after his death. 

– Haakon could choose, like his father and grandfather, to have his reign blessed during a consecration ceremony at Trondheim Cathedral, where Norwegian kings were crowned between 1814 and 1906. Coronations were abolished in 1908, but King Olav introduced the consecration ceremony in 1958. The consecration of King Harald and Queen Sonja took place on June 23, 1991.