Norway was preparing to say goodbye to its aging king, Harald, when the royal family suffered another loss shortly afterward with the death of Princess Astrid. But there was a third sibling, the eldest of the three, whose life had taken her far from the palaces of Oslo. Princess Ragnhild spent nearly her entire adult life in Brazil, became the first Norwegian princess to marry a commoner, and decades later gave a candid interview that ignited a scandal. She was called the princess in exile, and the reasons stretched back to a wartime childhood, a stubborn love affair, and a slow accumulation of grievances against the very institution she was born into.
Ragnhild Alexandra was the eldest daughter of Crown Prince Olav and Crown Princess Märtha. Her birth itself made history: she was the first Norwegian princess born on Norwegian soil in more than six hundred years. That rare distinction marked her as a figure of national significance from the very beginning. But her early years were soon overtaken by war.
When she was nine years old, Ragnhild left Norway with her mother, her younger sister Astrid, and her infant brother Harald. The family spent several years in the United States while her father and grandfather continued the fight against the German occupation from London. When peace finally came and the family returned home, the fourteen-year-old princess met a man who would change the entire course of her life. Erling Lorentzen was twenty-two years old.
He came from a prominent shipping family, had served in the resistance during the war, and after liberation was assigned to guard the royal family. In that capacity he taught the princesses to sail, and a friendship grew between him and the young Ragnhild. Soon after, Erling left to study at Harvard and Ragnhild went to Switzerland, but the distance did not end their connection. They continued writing to each other, and over time their friendship deepened into love.
The royal court was firmly opposed to the relationship. Ragnhild’s grandfather, King Haakon, forbade the couple from seeing or even communicating with each other for an entire year, hoping that separation would cool their feelings. They found ways to exchange letters in secret anyway. Eventually the royal family had to give in.
Nearly eight years after their first meeting, Ragnhild and Erling married, making her the first Norwegian princess to wed a man without royal blood. Soon after the wedding, the couple made a decision that would define the rest of Ragnhild’s life. Erling was expected to build the family business in Brazil, and Ragnhild went with him. They believed they were leaving for only a few years, but they stayed for the rest of their lives.
Less than a year after the wedding, her mother fell seriously ill. The pregnant princess managed to return to Norway in time to be at her mother’s side until she died. A few months later, Ragnhild gave birth to her first child. The joy of becoming a mother arrived together with one of the heaviest losses of her life.
After their mother’s death, the paths of the three siblings diverged further. Astrid remained close to her father and became Norway’s first lady, while Ragnhild built her life on the other side of the world, far from her family. In Brazil she raised three children, supported the Norwegian community and the Norwegian Seamen’s Church, and helped needy Brazilian children. She also stayed in close contact with her father.
For thirty-seven years she exchanged letters with him every week, and after his death she destroyed about fifteen hundred of them, considering their correspondence a private conversation. The year 2003 proved especially difficult for Ragnhild. One painful disappointment followed another, and her growing resentment nearly brought the family into open conflict. In the spring, she and Erling celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, fifty years of a marriage they had fought so hard to achieve.
The princess expected her brother to attend, but Harald and Sonja did not come; they had already planned other events. In the autumn, the royal couple arrived in Brazil on a state visit. When their father, King Olav, had visited the country, Ragnhild had been part of the royal delegation as a princess and daughter of the king. This time she was not introduced as a princess or as Harald’s sister, but only as the wife of a prominent businessman.
She was not even allowed to fly with the delegation between cities. To Ragnhild, it seemed as if the palace no longer considered her one of its own. After the official program, the king and queen were expected at Ragnhild’s home. Her children and grandchildren had gathered for a large family dinner.
But two hours before they were due to arrive, word came that the royal couple would not be coming. If the delegation incident had wounded Ragnhild as a princess, the cancelled dinner hurt her deeply as a sister. That same year they also missed the wedding of her youngest daughter, citing the journey as too long. It was against this background of hurt that Norwegian journalists recorded a long interview with Ragnhild.
The film was titled Princess in Exile. Officially, no one had ever sent her into exile, but after the events of that year the title took on a very different meaning for viewers. Ragnhild spoke about her life, but several sharp remarks overshadowed the whole story. She suggested that her father, King Olav, would not have approved of Haakon’s marriage to Mette-Marit, nor of Märtha Louise’s union with the writer Ari Behn.
People immediately saw a contradiction in her words: Ragnhild herself had once fought for the right to marry a man without royal blood. When asked how her own marriage was different, she answered, “At least Erling had a real job. ”
Her harshest words were directed at Mette-Marit. Speaking of the day the crown princess would become queen of Norway, Ragnhild said, “I hope I die before that happens.
I really hope so. ” But today even more attention is paid to what she said about six-year-old Marius, Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship. “I feel terribly sorry for her son. When they have a child together, poor Marius will become nobody.
He will realize that there is a difference between the children. They will have problems,” the princess said. Years later, when Marius’s name became connected to a criminal case, people remembered the interview again. To some, it seemed that Ragnhild had foreseen how difficult it would be for him to find his place among the royal children.
When the interview was recorded, Ragnhild was deeply hurt by both her brother and the palace. In an ordinary family, such words might not have provoked such a strong reaction. But Ragnhild was a princess and the king’s sister, so her remarks became a major public scandal. Some Norwegians accused her of arrogance and double standards.
Others believed she had simply said what everyone else had remained silent about. The royal family did not respond publicly and kept in contact. Only two months after the film appeared, Ragnhild attended the christening of Ingrid Alexandra, and later Harald hosted a dinner at the palace for his sister’s eightieth birthday. Ragnhild’s wish was that her children would give Ingrid Alexandra a family tiara, which the young princess wore for the first time at the official dinner for her eighteenth birthday.
Ragnhild continued to come to Norway for family celebrations and state ceremonies. She was also the patron of the Norwegian Association of the Hearing Impaired. In 2012 she was diagnosed with lung cancer. For a time, Erling could not bring himself to tell his wife how serious the diagnosis was.
The princess died at eighty-two, in her own bed, surrounded by her loved ones. Her coffin was brought to Oslo, where Harald and Astrid were waiting for her. After a service in the chapel of the Royal Palace, the princess was buried in Asker Church, where she had been married nearly sixty years earlier. Erling survived her by almost nine years and died at ninety-eight.
He was buried beside her. Princess Ragnhild was not as well known as her younger sister Astrid, who died quite recently. But she certainly left her mark on the history of two countries, Norway and Brazil.
Her life was shaped by war, exile, and a love that defied royal convention, and her final years revealed the cost of a life spent so far from the palace walls.