“A bit of a difficult topic…” Haakon, heir to the throne of Norway, cautiously called his family’s currently troubled relationship with his sister’s fiancé Märtha Louise last week when he was asked about it by journalists from the public TV broadcaster NRK.
His future brother-in-law should feel welcome with them, but he also needs to understand how things work in an institution that is heavily dependent on public opinion, such as the monarchy, and how members can and cannot behave. These internal debates are also part of the vibrant democracy to which they all belong, the crown prince said diplomatically in the television interview – with a rather strained smile on his lips.
Märtha’s future husband is Durek Verrett, a bisexual black American from Los Angeles, who describes himself as a shaman and is considered a star guru with a large following, especially in California. He also has a whopping 260,000 followers on Instagram. There he regularly holds live esoteric sessions with “soul healing rituals” and praises products such as amulets that are said to heal cancer or corona. He offers the latter for 222 dollars (equivalent to around 224 euros) on his website as “Spirit Optimizer”.
There he also describes himself as a healer and spiritual leader. He repeatedly makes statements that are difficult to classify, such as that he is a reincarnated, very old soul and, by the way, half human and half reptile. In his podcast he regularly makes extremely personal confessions, such as in 2019 about his sex life with Princess Märtha Louise, to the horror of Norwegians.
And according to his own statements, he was in prison for twelve months as a teenager because he had illegally organized a party with friends in an abandoned house and then a fire broke out there. Really not exactly the ideal, blameless son-in-law for King Harald.
Since the engagement last June, the Norwegian royal family has held back with critical public statements when it comes to their daughter’s new partner. King Harald, his wife Sonja and the crown prince couple apparently did everything to integrate the newcomer into the family, despite massive differences in lifestyle and views on both sides. Haakon and Mette-Marit naturally invited him to the state banquet on the occasion of their daughter Ingrid Alexandra’s 18th birthday in mid-June at Oslo Castle.
But rumors are slowly piling up in circles close to the court that there are more and more violent clashes behind the palace walls.
At the end of August, King Harald had also made soothing remarks about the criticism of Durek Verrett by many of his compatriots. It is a “clash of cultures”, a conflict between the Californian and the Norwegian way of life that is just coming to light. They are currently in a fruitful process of getting to know each other better, which will surely gradually resolve all potential for conflict.
Two months later, this royal family reconciliation process does not seem to have brought the hoped-for harmonious agreement. Above all, the question of whether it poses a problem for the royal family if Durek Verrett uses the royal title of his fiancé and his soon-to-be close family relationship to the royal family in the marketing of esoteric courses and products has been answered conclusively, but not on Dureks Satisfaction: The couple have been banned from referring to royal connections in any commercial activity.
Norwegian royal experts had accused Verrett of wanting to capitalize on his royal connection, even drawing parallels with the Sussex dukes. They too had wanted to combine a role in the – British – royal family with commercially lucrative activities. This ultimately led to the notorious “Megxit” including the late Queen’s ban on continuing to use the title “Royal Highness” and offering products and services under the brand name “Sussex Royal” or just operating social media channels.
The Norwegian tabloid magazine “Se og Hør” even claims to have learned that King Harald is considering stripping his daughter of the title of princess entirely in the event that she and her fiancé are unreasonable; talks had already taken place on this.
A new survey has shown that the majority of Norwegians would think it would be right if the current fourth in line to the throne renounced her title of “princess”. 17 percent of respondents are more negative about the monarchy now than they were a year ago – with many citing the relationship between Märtha Louise and Verrett as a reason. Reason enough for the king and crown prince to hold crisis talks and put the engaged couple in their place.
Meanwhile, Verrett has also given his view on the status of relations with his future in-laws and his acceptance in Norway. The son of a West Indian-Norwegian mother and a Haitian father has blamed growing criticism of him on racism. Norwegians “don’t want to see a black man in the royal family,” he was quoted in the media as saying they don’t want “Bridgerton in real life” – the latter a nod to the colorblind casting of the Netflix series “Bridgerton” about aristocrats in the Regency time in England. The princess supported him by saying she was really shocked at how he was treated in her home country.
However, Märtha Louise’s private life has long been a feast for the eyes, and not just for the Norwegian tabloids. In 1994, when she was in her early 20s, she hit the headlines and was named as an adulteress in a divorce lawsuit. It has been alleged that the enthusiastic competition rider, who was a member of the Norwegian national show jumping team at the time, was having an affair with a married Briton who was also a show jumper. Only after the king’s lawyers successfully argued that she enjoyed diplomatic immunity as a member of the Norwegian royal family was she spared a court appearance.
Before her first marriage in 2002 to Ari Behn, a middle-class, left-wing writer, Martha Louise announced that she would forego her royal appanage from taxpayers’ money and make her own living through business ventures. Whether this decision was made voluntarily or under pressure from her royal parents remained unclear.
Her professional life began quite innocently when the princess gave readings of folk tales and wrote a fairy tale-style children’s book entitled “Why Kings and Queens Don’t Wear Crowns”. A few years later, however, she made her mark in a different, more controversial way when she suddenly publicly announced that she could talk to angels. Later, with some success, she opened an “Engels Academy” in which students should be able to learn this skill. Even then, Märtha Louise officially renounced her title “Royal Highness” and was no longer considered a “working royal”, meaning she no longer represented the Norwegian royal family at official meetings.
The Behn couple had three daughters, all of whom are now teenagers, but divorced in 2017. Ari Behn, who had long suffered from depression, committed suicide two years later.
The princess’ relationship with Verrett, who met in 2018 through a mutual friend in the United States, caused new controversy. Especially after the couple went on tour with The Princess and the Shaman, a $150 show that promised audiences “a journey into life’s mysteries” and “shamanic practices and meditation.” Again and again, Verrett took controversial views, such as the assertion made in his book “Spirit Hacking” in 2019 that children develop cancer when they are unhappy. Chemotherapy would also not help against tumor diseases and would only be prescribed by doctors to rake in money.
According to royal house experts, the fact that he makes such claims and earns money with them is the main reason for his unpopularity with Norwegians. He also receives racist comments on his Instagram account, but the main problem is his business activities, in which he also involves the princess, wrote the renowned historian Trond Norén Isaksen in the Oslo daily Aftenposten: “The vast majority in Norway considers this to be nonsense and quackery, and such behavior is not really consistent with the role of the royal family, which should be a unifying rather than a divisive force in the nation.”
In an interview with British magazine Town and Country in early October, Verrett explained how the couple are dealing with this massive criticism: “It’s a challenge for people to see something new, to develop beyond their comfort zone. We’re trying to understand where people are and to find ways to do more enlightenment so that those people can start to see things from a different perspective and become open to change. That takes a lot of empathy. It takes a lot of love and a lot of patience.”
Also in the interview, the princess and her shaman speak of their special connection to the spirit world, which can help them empower people to heal themselves, or, in Verrett’s words, “Be your own goddamn guru” (the motto of his Instagram accounts). Märtha Louise and her fiancé say they are passionate about working together to help couples communicate effectively and grow together. Because in their relationship, as the princess puts it, they have “a very deeply feeling way of dealing with each other”.
According to the couple, the wedding planning is not very advanced at the moment, and there is still no date for the big day. Both work separately as well as together on projects. Märtha Louise continues to run her horse YouTube channel “Hest360”. She also launched a knitwear line called Hést with two friends in 2020, and she plans to continue offering “spiritual courses for highly sensitive people.” Verrett plans to televise his shamanic rituals and classes soon.
What Märtha’s family says about the TV plans of the soon-to-be family shaman is not mentioned in the interview. To say it with Crown Prince Haakon: It will probably remain a bit difficult, this royal family line-up.
