With the upcoming wedding of Prince Håkon Magnus on August 25th, Norway’s press has held fiancée Mette-Marit Tjessem H¢iby under careful scrutiny. Håkon’s relationship and imminent marriage to a single mother has sparked debates on the current state of Norway’s monarchy and produced mixed feelings on questions of morality and the role of the royal family. Who is Mette-Marit and how has she managed to plunge Norway’s monarchy into the simmering pot of contention?
Born the 19th of August, 1973 in Kristiansand, Mette-Marit was the youngest of four siblings. Her father, Sven Olaf H¢iby, now retired, worked in advertising and journalism. Her mother, Marit Tjessem, was the daughter of a dairy manager from Sandnes.
When Mette-Marit was 11 years old, her parents divorced and she went to live with her mother. Her mother has since remarried to Rolf Bernsten, who worked as a senior engineer with Hunsfos factories before retirement. Her elder sister and two brothers are all married with children.
At sixteen, Mette-Marit broke off her enrollment in the Vågsbyd videregående school and took off for Australia, where she stayed for a year as an exchange student. After returning to Norway, she graduated from the Kristiansand Cathedral School in 1994.
She was taking classes at Bj¢rknes private school in Oslo when, at the age of 24, she discovered she was pregnant. The father of her child is from Bærum and has a known criminal record involving drug abuse and possession of cocaine. Like Mette-Marit’s father, his parents were also involved in journalism and media.
Since giving birth to her son Marius, friends say Mette-Marit has turned from what many have called a wild life to concentrate on her role as a devoted mother. She began dating Prince Håkon in 1999 and the two are currently living together in an Oslo apartment. At the time, Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg downplayed their living situation, remarking that it was “nice that the heir to the throne, like many people at a similar stage of life, has decided to cohabit with someone.”
Like the Prime Minister, other Norwegian officials find themselves stepping carefully around statements about the couple’s relationship. Mette-Marit’s impending presence in the Royal Family has touched upon some sensitive issues in Norway. Here are some of the more salient concerns circulating about the upcoming marriage:
Mette-Marit as samboer
The term samboer in Norwegian translates roughly to English as live-in partner. Although living together in Norway is widely accepted and overwhelmingly practiced by a large number of young Norwegian couples today, there is some doubt as to whether this is an appropriate practice for the future king. As Odd Lovoll, retired professor of Scandinavian Studies at St. Olaf told the Star Tribune, “That is very common for young people to do in Norway, but if he ever becomes king, he becomes the head of the Church of Norway, and that’s a very important church principle he’s violated.” Many religious officials in Norway declined to comment on the situation for fear of offending the royal family and Kjell Magne Bondevik, former prime minister and Lutheran pastor said only that he hoped their living together would lead to a “formalization” of their relationship through marriage.
