The first weeks of the new reign in Norway had already tested the royal family in ways nobody had foreseen. King Haakon and Queen Mette-Marit had barely settled into their new roles when the country was struck by two bereavements. The nation said farewell to King Harald, and soon afterward his sister, Princess Astrid, also died. Mette-Marit lived through both losses while still recovering from a lung transplant.
On one of the most important days of her husband’s new life, she could not even stand at his side. Her condition worsened, and the new king drove his wife to the hospital himself. Only toward the end of September did the family’s life begin to return to a more normal rhythm. Haakon gradually settled into his working schedule as king.
Mette-Marit continued her recovery, and after several difficult weeks it seemed the family might finally find some peace. But precisely at that moment, public attention turned back to the queen in a way she could hardly have welcomed. On the 29th of September, a temporary installation by the artist Morten Viskum opened in the center of Oslo. Life-size wax figures of the new Queen of Norway and Jeffrey Epstein sat side by side on a sofa, with visitors invited to sit between them and have their picture taken.
The work quickly went viral. Its title was The Beginning of the End. Viskum based it on a photograph taken in Palm Beach during one of Mette-Marit’s visits in 2013. Later, when the details of her contacts with Epstein came to light, that photograph spread across the press and became one of the most unwelcome images from her past.
The installation carried another strange detail. If one looked closely, Epstein’s figure actually bore the face of Viskum himself. It was as if the artist had placed himself in Epstein’s position within the scene. Viskum, who is 61, was born in Denmark and built his career in Norway, where he became one of the best-known provocators in the Scandinavian art world.
He had made similar works featuring famous figures before, including Donald Trump. The location of the new work did not appear to be a coincidence. The installation stood just a few minutes’ walk from the royal palace and the Storting, Norway’s parliament. And in those very days, Haakon was preparing to open the parliamentary session for the first time as king.
One further detail made the situation especially ironic. When Viskum began working on the piece, Mette-Marit was still crown princess. By the time it opened, Harald had passed away, Haakon had taken the throne, and the woman in the old photograph had become queen of Norway. In those same days, the Norwegian Parliament was holding public hearings on the ties between influential Norwegians and the Epstein affair.
Mette-Marit was not called to appear, but her name was once again being mentioned in connection with the story at the very moment she had just begun her life as queen. The public discussion of her life did not end there. Despite official statements, many people immediately connected what happened next with the controversial installation. The queen had been expected to attend the ceremonial opening of the Storting alongside Haakon and Ingrid Alexandra.
The palace had confirmed in advance that she would be there. But a few hours before the ceremony, news came that the queen would not attend. The reason given was a respiratory infection. Mette-Marit’s doctor had said her recovery from the transplant would take about a year.
This was already the second historic moment she had missed because of her health. In early September, she had been unable to be with Haakon when he took the oath as the new king. Then too, her condition had worsened on the very day of the ceremony. Now history had repeated itself.
She had planned to appear at the opening of the Storting for the first time as queen, and once again she stayed at home. Several months had passed since the transplant, but she still could not return to a normal schedule. Even her appearances at the most important state events had to be canceled at the last minute. Her illness had also changed the family’s personal plans.
In August, Haakon and Mette-Marit were supposed to mark 25 years of marriage. The celebration of their silver wedding anniversary had to be postponed because of her condition and the transplant. After leaving the hospital, Mette-Marit had said that organ donation gave her the gift of life. She thanked her doctors, the donor, and her family.
All she could do now was regain her strength little by little, without rushing her recovery. At the same time, their new status had not completely changed the couple’s everyday life. They still lived at Skaugum, where they had spent many years as crown prince and crown princess. No move to the royal palace had been officially announced.
When Harald and Sonja came to the throne, they likewise did not move into the palace right away. For now, Skaugum remained home for the new royal couple as well. Haakon was recently spotted at a grocery store in Rørvik. He was on his way to the family’s home in Uvdal and simply stopped to buy food.
Other shoppers recognized him and took a few photographs, and the king calmly carried on with what he was doing. In the middle of all this, the troubles of her eldest son, Marius Borg, had not gone away. After the first trial, it might have seemed that the key decision had already been made. He was sentenced to four years in prison.
However, part of the court’s ruling would be reviewed on appeal, and Marius had once again changed lawyers for those proceedings. This was already the third defense team to represent him in the case. The new team said it intended to present additional evidence and call new witnesses. The appeal was scheduled for the following year, which meant the story that had followed Mette-Marit for several years was not over yet.
Yet not all the news in her life at that moment was painful. The queen’s younger son, Prince Magnus, left that autumn to study in Lisbon. He enrolled in a bachelor’s program in business management at Forward College. He would spend his first year in Portugal and then continue his studies in Paris and Berlin.
Over the next few years, his priority would be his studies, although the palace did not rule out that he might carry out some official duties from time to time. Ingrid Alexandra had also entered a new stage of her life. After a year of study in Sydney, she returned to Norway and continued her education at the University of Oslo. But in that time she had become more than just a princess.
She was now the heir to the throne and had already taken her own oath to the constitution. If necessary, Ingrid could now act as regent. The palace stressed, however, that for the next few years her main focus would remain her studies. That was exactly why everything happening around the installation seemed especially uncomfortable for the queen.
She was still recovering from the transplant and once again had to cancel important engagements. And at the same time, just a few minutes from the palace, a public spectacle stood built on a photograph she would surely have liked to forget long ago. Whether her mistakes would ever be left in the past, or whether the queen would be reminded of them for the rest of her life, remained an open question.