Norway releases first image of crown princess after lung transplant

OSLO: Norway’s royal palace on Monday shared the first images of the country’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit since she underwent a lung transplant in June.

The palace posted an image to social media of the crown princess sitting on a couch next to her husband Crown Prince Haakon watching Norway defeat Brazil — taking the country to its first-ever World Cup quarter-final.

“Yesterday turned into a historic evening!” the Royal House of Norway said in a post to Instagram.

A second photo showed the couple looking out of a window at the jubilant crowds that gathered outside.

It added that the crown princess and crown prince had followed the game from the palace.

Despite her evening at the palace, a spokeswoman told AFP that the crown princess had not yet been discharged from the hospital.

Mette-Marit, 52, was diagnosed in 2018 with pulmonary fibrosis which causes scarring of the lungs and shortness of breath, and she had been forced to scale back her duties on occasion over the years.

Her condition had deteriorated significantly over the past six months and her doctors said on June 5 that she had been placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant, and on June 17 the palace announced she had undergone a “successful” lung transplant.

A single mother when she married Haakon in 2001, Mette-Marit’s health woes have coincided with the high-profile trial of her 29-year-old son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, which has damaged the monarchy’s standing in the public eye.

In June, an Oslo court sentenced Hoiby to four years in prison for two counts of rape and 32 other offences, after a six-week trial in February and March.

Hoiby has denied the most serious charges, and his lawyers have appealed the verdict, according to local media.

Mette-Marit has also been plagued by revelations about her friendship with convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In January, documents were released revealing her frequent contacts with Epstein between 2011 and 2014 — after he was convicted of soliciting a minor — which shocked Norwegians.