Norwegian Princess, American Shaman to Marry Next Year

Princess Martha Louise is the Norwegian king's eldest child
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 13, 2023 2:54 PM CDT
Norwegian Princess to Wed American Shaman Next Year
Norway's Princess Martha Louise and her fiance Durek Verrett arrive at the government's party event in connection with Princess Ingrid Alexandra's 18th birthday, which is held at Deichman Bjoervika, Oslo's main library, Thursday June 16, 2022.   (Hakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB via AP, File)

The Norwegian king's eldest child, Princess Martha Louise, will marry her American partner, the self-professed shaman Durek Verrett, next summer, the couple announced Wednesday. King Harald V said in a statement that his family was "delighted to welcome" Verret, who is from California and claims to be a sixth-generation shaman. The Norwegian princess can trace her ancestry back to Britain's Queen Victoria. The couple, who toured the country in 2019 as "The Princess and The Shaman," have created waves in Norway with their alternative beliefs.

For the past several years, Martha Louise, 51, has said she can talk with angels, while Verret, 48, claims that he communicates with a broad range of spirits, wields ancient medicine, and has a medallion which helps ward off heavy energies, spells, and darkness, reports the AP. The wedding will take place on Aug. 24 in Geiranger, prized for its typical Norwegian scenery among mountains and fjords. The VG newspaper, one of Norway's biggest, said that the wedding would be privately paid for.

The state broadcaster NRK said that Verret will move to Norway. And while he will join the royal family, he won't have a title. Although Princess Martha Louise is the first child of King Harald V, her brother, Crown Prince Haakon, who is two years younger than her, will succeed his father as king. The Norwegian Constitution was altered in 1990 to allow the first born, regardless of gender, to take precedence in the line of succession. However, it wasn't done retroactively, meaning that Haakon remains first in line to the throne. Haakon's oldest child, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, will one day ascend the Norwegian throne. (The princess gave up her royal duties over her fiance last year.)

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