Princess Martha Louise with her fiance Durek Verrett
Norwegian Princess Martha Louise, the oldest child of King Harald and Queen Sonja, will marry self-proclaimed shaman Durek Verrett on August 31, 2024, the pair announced on Wednesday.
The romance between the 51-year-old princess and Verrett, a Hollywood spiritual guru, has not gone down well in the Scandinavian country, where his alternative medicine methods and views have earned him the title ‘quack’.
The wedding will take place at Geiranger, on the shores of the same name fjord, which has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwestern Norway.
In a statement, the couple stated, “We are incredibly happy to be able to celebrate our love in Geiranger’s beautiful surroundings”.
Martha Louise and Durek Verrett announced their engagement in June 2022, with the blessing of King Harald, who also married a commoner, Sonja, in 1968.
The monarch, queen, and Crown Prince Haakon congratulated the couple and said they were happy to welcome Durek Verrett into the family in a separate statement on Wednesday.
The African-American has created waves in Norway over the years, calling himself a sixth-generation shaman and counting Gwyneth Paltrow and Antonio Banderas among his disciples.
Martha Louise, the fourth in the line of succession, and a divorced mother of three girls, is no stranger to controversy.
She is a proponent of alternative therapies and claims to be able to communicate with angels, a gift she has shared and profited from via books and seminars.
She gave up her royal duties in November 2022 to focus on her alternative medicine business with Mr. Verrett. She preserved her title but decided not to use it in her business. Her former marriage was to Ari Behn, a flamboyant writer who committed suicide three years after their divorce in 2019.
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