Just a few days after his 87th birthday, the health of Norway’s King Harald V is once again causing concern. As announced on the official website of the Norwegian royal family, the monarch had to be admitted to a hospital in Malaysia. Specifically, the short statement says: “His Majesty the King fell ill during his vacation in Malaysia and is in hospital there with an infection. The King is being well cared for by both Malaysian and Norwegian medical staff.”
How long King Harald has to spend in the hospital is not clear from the message. Just a few weeks ago he had to take a break due to a respiratory infection; his son Prince Haakon represented him during this time.
The Norwegian king has had repeated health problems recently. In May last year he had to be treated for several days in a clinic in Oslo because of an infection. It was the third time in just a few months that Harald V. was in the hospital. He had to be treated for an infection in August and December 2022. And even before that, the monarch’s health continued to cause problems: in 2005 and 2020 he was operated on to replace a heart valve. In recent years, Harald has also suffered from knee problems, among other things.
Despite the health setbacks, shortly after Queen Margrethe of Denmark’s abdication at the beginning of 2024, he asserted that he did not want to follow her example. According to his own statements, he is not thinking about leaving office prematurely and would like to remain king until his death.
“I stick to what I have said all along: that I have sworn an oath to parliament and that it lasts for life,” the Norwegian monarch told the NTB news agency when asked by a reporter in the press house in January of this year Oslo, as “Bergens Tidende” reported. The journalist had asked whether the king had given any new thought to such a decision after Margrethe’s abdication.
