Some two hours ago, the royal court announced that Princess Märtha Louise and her husband of fourteen years, the author Ari Behn, are to divorce.
In a press announcement published on the royal website, the Princess says that their life has taken some unexpected turns and that they are both unspeakably sorry to realise that their ways ahead will be different paths as they have grown apart, that they "no longer meet as we did before" and that having tried everything over a long period of time there is nothing more they can do about it. The Princess adds that they feel guilty about no longer being able to provide the safe haven their children deserve, but that they hope to be able to remain friends. The King and Queen add that they are "fond of Ari and grateful for everything we have experienced together as a family. We will have a good relationship with Ari in the future as well".
Princess Märtha Louise and Ari Behn will have shared custody of their three daughters, Maud, Leah and Emma Behn, and while the Princess will retain sole ownership of the family home in Lommedalen in Bærum outside Oslo and the summer house Bloksbjerg at Hankø, Ari Behn will settle somewhere near his daughters.
The divorce will have no constitutional implications.
Contrary to what some have claimed, this is not the first divorce in Norwegian royal history, although it is the first since Prince Christian Frederik of Denmark and Norway (who reigned as King Christian Frederik of Norway in 1814 and as King Christian VIII of Denmark from 1839 to 1848) divorced Princess Charlotte Frederikke in 1810.