Princess Ingrid Alexander of Norway smiles as she and her mother Mette-Marit visit King Harald, 87, in Oslo hospital – after the monarch flew home from Malaysia

Crown Princess Mette-Marit and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra visited King Harald today at the Rikshospital in Oslo, Norway.

Mette-Marit, 50, looked focused as she drove her Tesla to University Hospital to visit her father-in-law with daughter Ingrid Alexandra, 20.

King Harald, 87, was rushed back to Oslo yesterday aboard a medical evacuation plane after being hospitalized for an infection during a private trip in Langkawi, Malaysia.

“He will remain in hospital for treatment and rest for a few days,” the royal household said in a statement on Sunday.

King Harald, the monarch of Norway since 1991, is the oldest living monarch in Europe. He has been hospitalized several times in recent years with infections and has undergone heart surgery.

Princess Mette-Marit and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra looked positive as they made their way to the Rikshospital – with Ingrid flashing a smile for the photographers.

It was previously said that the king was expected to be on sick leave for two weeks. Crown Prince Haakon, who married Princess Mette-Marit in 2001, was chairman during his father’s absence.

The 87-year-old king had been hospitalized due to an infection during a private trip to the holiday island of Langkawi. On Saturday he received a temporary pacemaker.

A medical plane believed to be carrying the king took off from Langkawi on Sunday afternoon after police escorted an ambulance convoy from the hospital to the airport, as reported by AFP.

Queen Sonja was traveling with the king, who would be admitted to Oslo’s Rikshospitalet hospital upon his return to Norway, the royal household said in a statement.

“The king will be on sick leave for two weeks,” it said. ‘The crown prince will be regent during that period and will take over the constitutional duties of the king.’ Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, 50, was already chairman in his father’s absence.

On Saturday, the royal court had said that the king would be able to fly home in a few days. It says the government has asked the Norwegian military to assist with the trip.

King Harald has been hospitalized several times in recent years with infections and has undergone heart surgery.

He suffered a respiratory infection in January, days after dismissing speculation that he could step down, following the lead of Denmark’s distant cousin Queen Margrethe II.

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

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said he was “sad” when he heard of the king’s hospitalization and wished him a “speedy recovery,” according to NTB.

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

Last month, the royal family confirmed he has no plans to step down following speculation he could follow in the footsteps of his former Danish counterpart, Queen Margrethe.

The monarch, the great-nephew of King Charles III, emphasized that the promise he made to the Norwegian parliament when he came to the throne in 1991 is “valid for life.”

King Harald told Faktisk.no: “I stand by what I have said all along. I made an oath to the Storting, and it is valid 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 on January 14.

Afterwards, a royal expert had suggested that the Danish monarch had broken an “invisible pact” between heads of state in the Scandinavian countries that no one would step down from the throne.

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

However, this was firmly rejected by King Harald.

The Norwegian king was 53 when he came to the throne in 1991, after the death of his father, King Olav. Previously, he served as Crown Prince Regent due to his father’s illness, which escalated in the spring of 1990.

King Harald has faced some health issues himself in recent years and spent time in hospital last May treating an infection, but he clearly has no intention of abdicating.

His Scandinavian neighbor, Queen Margrethe of Denmark, made the shocking announcement during her New Year’s Eve speech that she would give up the throne.

The Danish royal family has suffered several scandals in the past two years, including the queen’s surprise decision to strip her grandchildren of their princely titles.

There were also rumors of an ‘affair’ after the then Crown Prince Frederik was spotted in Madrid with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova.

But Denmark isn’t the only monarchy in the Nordic countries to have had a bumpy few years, with the Norwegian royal family experiencing its own ‘Megxit’.

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

In 2022, it was announced 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 criticized for his controversial views.

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

Shortly after the mother of three announced her engagement to Verrett, a Norwegian publisher dropped his book “Spirit Hacking” due to pseudoscientific claims, including “children can get cancer if they are unhappy.”

Among his other claims, Verrett says he once rose from the dead, recovering from a months-long coma, by “burning” his soul, and has also spoken about having to receive a kidney transplant from his sister as a child.

After Martha Louise’s decision to abdicate, King Harald emphasized that his daughter remained a princess at his request. He said, “She is our daughter, and she will remain so. So she is Princess Märtha Louise.’

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

Crown Prince Haakon, Martha-Louise’s older brother, is Norway’s heir apparent – and the future king has already gotten a taste of what it will be like to take the throne after taking his father’s place several times in recent years .