King Harald’s state of health “has worsened,” says Royal Palace

O monarch with the longest reign in Europe, Harald V suffers from hemolytic anemia, a blood disease that causes abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells, and has been hospitalized for almost a week at Oslo National Hospital.

“ His Majesty the King’s state of health worsened during the weekend,” the palace said, in a statement, adding that the monarch “is receiving antibiotics to treat a bacterial infection in the blood and has responded well to treatment.”.

Harald ascended the Norwegian throne in 1991 and has faced various health problems for several years, but has always ruled out the possibility of abdicating.

In recent days, several members of his family, including his son, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, who serves as regent in his absence, visited the king in the hospital.

The king, admitted last Monday due to fluid retention caused by treatment with cortisone, was placed in medical discharge for two weeks.

These new health problems arise at a time when the Norwegian royal family is involved in several scandals in recent months, particularly involving the heir princess, Mette-Marit, Haakon's wife.

The publication of documents in the United States at the end of January revealed Mette-Marit's extensive and sometimes intimate correspondence with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014, even if the US financial officer had already been convicted.

The Princess also had to deal with the legal problems of her son, Marius Borg Høiby, the result of a previous relationship with Mette-Marit and Haakon in 2001.

Høiby, 29 years old, was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two violations and 32 other charges, including violence against a former partner, and appealed to the sentence.

Mette-Marit, 53 years old, who suffers from incurable lung disease, was also submitted to a lung transplant in July.