King Harald of Norway, 87, is hospitalised: Europe's oldest monarch falls ill with an infection on a private holiday to Malaysia

• The monarch is receiving care from Malaysian and Norwegian medical personnel
• READ MORE: Royals mourn death of Lady Gabriella Windsor’s war hero husband

King Harald V of Norway has been hospitalized with an infection while on holiday in Malaysia, the Norwegian royal house said in a statement Tuesday.

The royal, 87, who is the oldest monarch in Europe, was enjoying a trip abroad before being admitted to Sultanah Maliha Hospital on the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

Two days before Harald’s 87th birthday last week, the palace announced that the king would be undertaking a private trip abroad, without specifying the destination or dates, according to the Norwegian news agency NTB.

Details of the royal’s condition are limited; however, the royal is said to be receiving good care from both Malaysian and Norwegian medical personnel, according to the royal household.

The 87-year-old monarch has had several illnesses in recent months and underwent heart surgery in 2020.

King Harald V of Norway, pictured, has been hospitalized with an infection while on holiday in Malaysia. The monarch is photographed last week in Norway

Royal officials have told Norwegian media that Crown Prince Haakon will be carrying on with his existing planned engagements at home.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that he was ‘sad’ to hear of the king’s hospitalization and wished him a ‘speedy recovery,’ NTB said.

Despite Harald’s precarious physical condition, the royal is certain that he wants to continue as Norway’s reigning monarch.

Harald has been Norway’s ceremonial head of state since 1991 and is Europe’s oldest living monarch.

And last month, the royal confirmed that he has no plans to abdicate after speculation he could follow in the footsteps of his former Danish counterpart, Queen Margrethe.

The monarch, 87, (who is the second cousin of King Charles III) insisted that the promise he made to the Norwegian Parliament when he acceded the throne in 1991 ‘lasts for life’.

King Harald told Faktisk.no: ‘I stand by what I have said all along. I have taken an oath to the Storting, and it lasts for life.’

It comes after Queen Margrethe of Denmark, 83, abdicated after 52 years on the throne, making way for her son Frederik to take over as King on 14 January.

The royal is receiving medical care at Sultanah Maliha Hospital, pictured, on the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi

The monarch is receiving care from both Norwegian and Malaysian medical personnel at the hospital

Afterwards, a royal expert had suggested the Danish monarch had broken an ‘invisible pact’ between heads of state in the Scandinavian countries that none would step down from the throne.

Roger Lundberg told STV that, after Denmark’s changeover, there is a chance King Harald of Norway and King Carl Gustaf of Sweden , 79, might follow suit and step down to allow their eldest children to take the throne.

However, this has now been firmly dismissed by King Harald.

The Norwegian King was 53 when he acceded the throne in 1991, upon the death of his father King Olav. Ahead of this, he had been acting as Crown Prince Regent due to his father’s illness, which escalated in the spring of 1990.

King Harald has faced some health concerns himself in recent years, and spent time in the hospital to treat an infection last May, but clearly has no intention of abdicating.

His Scandinavian neighbour Queen Margrethe of Denmark made the shock announcement that she would give up the throne in her New Year’s Eve speech.

The Danish Royal Family have spent the last two years grappling with various scandals, including the Queen’s surprise decision to strip her grandchildren of their princely titles.

Harald, who is Europe’s oldest living monarch, is being treated for an infection at the Southeast Asian hospital (pictured)

The royal has experienced several health complications in recent times, including undergoing a successful heart surgery in 2020

There were also rumours of an ‘affair’ after Crown Prince Frederik was spotted out in Madrid with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova, the monarch’s decision to retire may provide a much-needed fresh start.

But Denmark is not the only monarchy in the Scandinavian nations to have had a bumpy few years – with Norway’s royal family experiencing its very own ‘Megxit’

King Harald and Queen Sonja’s only daughter Princess Martha Louise, who was fourth in line to the throne, stepped down as a working royal in 2019.

It was announced in 2022 that the mother-of-three would no longer represent the Royal household in any form following her engagement to an American Shamanic healer who had been criticised for his controversial views.

King Harald said that Martha would not be allowed to use her royal title any future commercial partnerships with her partner Durek Verrett, 47.

Shortly after the mother-of-three announced her engagement to Verrett, a Norweigan publishing house dropped his book ‘Spirit Hacking’ over pseudoscientific claims, including ‘children can get cancer from being unhappy’.

Among his other claims, Verrett says he once came back from the dead, recovering from a month-long coma, by letting his soul ‘burn’ and he has also spoken of having to undergo a kidney transplant from his sister as a child.

Following Martha Louise’s decision to step down, King Harald stressed that his daughter has remained a princess at his request, saying: ‘She is our daughter, and she will continue to be. So she is Princess Märtha Louise.’

The princess was previously married to Ari Behn, whom she wed in 2002 and had three children together Maud Angelica, 19, Leah Isadora, 17, and Emma Tallulah, 14. They split in 2016, and Ari took his own life on Christmas Day in 2019.

Crown Prince Haakon, Martha-Louise’s older brother, is Norway’s heir apparent – and the future King has already had a taste of what it will be like to ascend the throne after stepping in for his father on several occasions over the past few years.

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