Norway’s Princess Martha Louise, the oldest child of King Harald and Queen Sonja, will marry self-proclaimed shaman Durek Verrett on August 31, 2024, the couple 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 statements have seen him labelled a “quack”.
The wedding will be held in the town of Geiranger, on the shores of a fjord of the same name, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in southwestern Norway.
“We are incredibly happy to be able to celebrate our love in Geiranger’s beautiful surroundings,” the couple said in a statement.
Martha Louise and Durek Verrett announced their engagement in June 2022, receiving the blessing of King Harald who also married a commoner when he wed Sonja in 1968.
In a separate statement on Wednesday, the king, queen and Crown Prince Haakon congratulated the couple and said they were “happy to welcome Durek Verrett into the family”.
The African-American, who calls himself a “sixth generation shaman” and counts Gwyneth Paltrow and Antonio Banderas among his followers, has made waves in Norway over the years.
