King Harald of Norway, 87, will be fitted with a permanent pacemaker today after falling ill with an infection during a private Malaysian holiday and will remain in hospital for ‘a few days’

King Harald V of Norway will receive a permanent pacemaker implant this morning, the palace has revealed.

The 87-year-old is being treated at Rikshospitalet hospital and is expected to stay there for “a few days.”

The implant will ensure that Harald’s heart beats regularly and will replace the temporary pacemaker he received last weekend.

Harald, Europe’s oldest monarch, was hospitalized due to an infection during a private trip to the holiday island of Langkawi in Malaysia.

After medical treatment in Langkawi, Harald returned to Oslo last week to be fitted with the permanent medical device.

In a brief statement, the palace said: “His Majesty the King will have a permanent pacemaker implanted this morning.

‘The procedure will take place at Rikshospitalet hospital. After this, His Majesty will remain in hospital for a few more days.”

Despite Harald’s health problems, the royal family has maintained an active approach with public involvement, and yesterday Queen Sonja and Princess Ingrid-Alexander attended a cross-country skiing event in Holmenkollen.

It comes after King Harald of Norway thanked well-wishers for support as he revealed he is undergoing ‘expert’ treatment for his ‘challenging’ health condition.

The 87-year-old, along with his wife, Queen Sonja, 86, issued a joint statement via Instagram last week when he received medical care in Oslo.

The monarch has received support from close family, including Crown Princess Mette-Marit, 50, and her daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 20, who visited the monarch at the Rikshospital.

“We feel a great need to thank you for all the care, help and support during the King’s illness during our holiday in Malaysia,” the couple said in their statement.

The royal couple thanked not only the Norwegian public for their ‘support’, but also the Malaysian authorities and staff who assisted them during their stay.

The statement read: ‘We feel a great need to thank you for all the care, help and support during the King’s illness during our holiday in Malaysia.

“We have felt the heat from the Norwegian people at this moment. The great effort has moved and strengthened us. We thank everyone for the concern you have shown us within the family.

‘Back home in Norway, we would also like to thank the Malaysian authorities and the staff at Sultanah Maliha Hospital in Langkawi.

‘Together with the Norwegian health staff, they have done everything they can to ensure that the king recovers well from his illness and is ready for his return home.

“We are very grateful to the Norwegian government, the armed forces and others who helped make our journey home so safe and smooth. Kongen is now being treated expertly at the Rikshospitalet.’

They concluded: ‘We thank everyone who provided us with care, practical assistance and medical assistance in a challenging situation.’

King Harald, Norway’s ceremonial head of state since 1991, is Europe’s oldest living monarch. He 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 month-long coma, by “burning” his soul, and has also spoken about needing a kidney transplant from his sister as a child undergo.

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 ascend the throne after taking his father’s place several times in recent years .