On the death of his father on 17 January 1991, Harald
succeeded to the Norwegian throne. He became the first Norwegian-born monarch since
Olav IV died in 1387, a gap of 604 years. Harald is the sixth King of Norway to bear that name, and the first in 855 years. The five other kings who have borne the name are
Harald Fairhair,
Harald Greycloak,
Harald Bluetooth,
Harald Hardrada, and
Harald Gille. Harald Bluetooth is usually not given a number in the
Norwegian list of kings, therefore Harald is 'only' numbered as
Harald V. King Harald made the decision to use his grandfather and father's royal motto, "
Alt for Norge". The King also chose to continue the tradition of royal
benediction, a tradition that had been introduced with his
father, and was consecrated together with
Queen Sonja in the
Nidaros Cathedral on 23 June 1991. The reign of King Harald has been marked by modernization and reform for the
Norwegian Royal family. The King has cooperated closely with Queen Sonja and the Crown Prince in making the
royal household more open to the Norwegian public and the
Norwegian media. King Harald's decision to accept two more commoners into the royal family,
Crown Princess Mette-Marit and
Ari Behn, has been interpreted as a sign of modernization and adjustment. Under King Harald and Queen Sonja's leadership, comprehensive renovation projects on the
Bygdøy Royal Estate, the
Royal Palace,
the royal stables and
Oscarshall have also taken place. The latter three have also been opened to the public and tourists. Together with Queen Sonja, the king has also for decades attempted to establish a
palace museum in
Oslo.
Constitutional role ,
George W. Bush, and Queen Sonja, 2005 ,
President of Argentina in
Buenos Aires, 2018 While the Constitution vests the King with executive power, he is not politically responsible for exercising it. This is in accordance not only with provisions of the Constitution, but with conventions established since the definitive establishment of parliamentary rule in Norway in 1884. His acts are not valid without the countersignature of a member of the
Council of State (cabinet)–usually the
Prime Minister–and proceedings of the Council of State are signed by all of its members. Although he nominally has the power of veto, no Norwegian king has exercised it since the dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905. Even then, the King's veto power is suspensive, not absolute as is the case with British monarchs. A royal veto can be overridden if the Storting passes the same bill following a general election. While the Constitution nominally vests the King with the power to appoint the government, in practice it is impossible for a King to keep a government in office against the will of
Parliament. By convention, the King appoints the leader of the parliamentary bloc with the majority as prime minister. When the parliamentary situation is unclear, the King relies on the advice of the
President of Parliament and the sitting prime minister. Unlike most constitutional monarchs, Harald does not have the power to dissolve Parliament; the Constitution does not allow snap elections. The King meets with the Council of State at the
Royal Palace every Friday. He also has weekly meetings with the Prime Minister and the
Minister of Foreign Affairs. He receives foreign envoys, and formally opens parliament every October delivering a
speech from the throne during each opening. He travels extensively throughout Norway and makes official
state visits to other countries, as well as receiving and hosting guests. Until 2012, the King of Norway was, according to the constitution, the formal head of the
Church of Norway. The constitutional amendment of 21 May 2012 made the King no longer the formal head, but he is still required to be of the Evangelical Lutheran religion. On 8 May 2018, the King's
constitutional status as
holy was dissolved, while leaving his
sovereign immunity intact.
Sporting role In 1994, both the King and Crown Prince Haakon played roles during the opening ceremony of the
Lillehammer Olympics. The King opened the games, while the Crown Prince
lit the cauldron, paying tribute to both the King and his
grandfather as Olympians. The King has also represented Norway at opening ceremonies of Olympic Games, among them
Torino and
Beijing. However, he was not present in
Vancouver; the Crown Prince attended instead, with the King and Queen attending later in the games. With his sailing crew he won World Championship bronze, silver and gold medals, in 1988, 1982 and 1987, respectively. In July 2005, the King and his crew aboard the royal sailboat
Fram XV won the gold medal at the European Championships in Sweden. In the 2007 World Championship the King came in sixth place.
Recent years session of 2021–22 King Harald's leadership during Norwegian national crises, such as the
New Year's Day Storm (1992),
July 2011 massacre,
2020 Gjerdrum landslide, and particularly the
COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020 to March 2022), have been met with both national and international acclaim. In 2015, he became the world's first reigning monarch to visit
Antarctica, specifically the
Norwegian dependency Queen Maud Land. In 2016, King Harald V competed with a team for the sailing World Championships on
Lake Ontario,
Toronto. The king came second in the classic fleet category. He was dubbed "Sailor-King" by Canada's
National Post as he slept on board his yacht
Sira. In 2016 Harald, in a speech marking 25 years on the throne, sought to unify Norwegians coming from
Afghanistan and
Pakistan as well as "girls who love girls, boys who love boys and girls and boys who love each other." Since the start of the twenty-first century, King Harald has been unable to perform his duties as sovereign due to ill health on a few occasions: from December 2003 to mid-April 2004 due to urinary
bladder cancer, from April to early June 2005 due to
aortic stenosis, and in 2020 due to cardiac surgery (replacement of a
heart valve). Crown Prince Haakon served as the country's
regent on these occasions, including giving the
King's Speech at the
State opening of parliament in 2020. When the King and Queen turned 80 years old in 2017, the King decided to open the former royal stables to the public as a gift to his wife, the Queen. The new venue was named
The Queen Sonja Art Stable and is the first institution owned by the royal family which is permanently open to the public. King Harald was made
Name of the Year by the newspaper
VG in 2017. On 17 January 2021, King Harald celebrated 30 years on the Norwegian throne. On 11 September 2022, he visited Denmark to celebrate
Margrethe II's Golden Jubilee. Harald was hospitalized in August 2022 with a fever, being again admitted to hospital that December for an infection. He was also hospitalized for an infection once again in May 2023 just before
Constitution Day. On 15 September 2023 he also attended the celebrations of
Carl XVI Gustaf's Golden Jubilee in
Stockholm, Sweden. In October 2023, Harald tested positive for
coronavirus, having previously tested positive for the disease in March 2022. Since the
death of Elizabeth II in 2022, Harald is Europe's oldest hereditary reigning monarch, at the age of . Since 9 September 2024 he is the oldest monarch in over 1,150 years of Norwegian monarchy, living longer than his father
Olav V, who died at the age of 87 years and 199 days. On 31 January 2024, the royal palace announced that King Harald was on "sick leave" until 2 February due to a respiratory infection. On 27 February, while on holiday in
Malaysia, he was again hospitalized on the resort island of
Langkawi; he was admitted to the royal suites of Sultanah Maliha Hospital, a government hospital and the only major hospital on the island, and had a temporary
pacemaker implanted due to a low heart rate. During his hospitalization, he was accorded protection and security similar to that of a
reigning state ruler of Malaysia by the Malaysian government. The Norwegian ambassador and high ranking Malaysian officials including the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kedah State Councillor, Director General of Malaysian Ministry of Health, and Langkawi Island Police Chief were present at the hospital. The hospital compound were put under the highest security perimeters by the Royal Malaysian Police. He was discharged on 3 March and was transported back to Norway on a medical evacuation flight to continue his recovery in a hospital, during which he would be on sick leave for two weeks. He received a permanent pacemaker on 12 March. Two days later, he was discharged but remained on sick leave. He resumed his duties on 22 April, with the royal household saying that his official activities would be reduced in light of his condition. In February 2026, Harald was hospitalised during a vacation in
Tenerife and treated for a skin infection on his leg. Despite his health issues Harald has never considered abdicating, stating to the press following the announcement of the
impeding abdication of his Danish counterpart Margrethe II "No, I don't really have it. I stand by what I have said all along. I have taken an oath to the Storting, and it lasts for life."
Rebel Royals In the
Netflix documentary
Rebel Royals featuring his daughter Princess Märtha Louise and son-in-law
Durek Verrett, Verrett accused King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon of not "knowing what
racism was" and said the king and queen hated everything he did and "would always let Märtha know" he was the wrong boyfriend for her. Verrett said the first time that King Harald asked about his experiences of racism was when
Oprah with Meghan and Harry aired, and that "they didn't want a family discussion because they didn't want to treat me that way. They wanted to have a family discussion because they were afraid I might be the next one on Oprah." Norwegian media called the documentary and Verrett's statements a "character assassination of the king and queen." Norwegian commentators said Verrett and Märtha Louise "are making fools of themselves." In a speech during the 2025 (dinner with members of the Storting) at the Royal Palace, Harald responded to the release of the documentary by jokingly proposing a sequel entitled "" (The King minute by minute).
Høiby affairs Harald has refused to answer questions about the
relationship of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and Jeffrey Epstein and the criminal trial of
Marius Borg Høiby, Mette-Marit's son by an earlier relationship, for rape. == Arms ==