Crown Prince Haakon

Crown Prince Haakon (born July 20, 1973, Oslo, Norway) is the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne, the only son of King Harald V and Queen Sonja.

Although Haakon was the second child to Harald V and Sonja, he was from birth the heir to the throne. (The succession law was changed in 1990, but it applied only to those born subsequently and thus did not enable his older sister, Märtha Louise, to take the throne.) After four years of service in the navy, including time at the Naval Academy in Bergen, he broke with Norwegian tradition to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where in 1999 he obtained a B.A. in political science. He later studied law and social science at the University of Oslo, and in 2004 he received an M.A. in international politics from the London School of Economics.

In 1999 Haakon began dating Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby, a commoner and a single mother, and the following year they became engaged. The prince’s choice of bride raised concerns among some Norwegians. The objection, however, seemed to be less the issue of succession—her four-year-old son, Marius, could never be king—than the people with whom she had associated with in the past; her former boyfriend (and the father of her son) had been sentenced to prison for assault and possession of cocaine. The controversy abated when Haakon and Mette-Marit held a press conference in which she apologized for her former life. A week later, on August 25, 2001, the couple married. They later had a daughter, Ingrid Alexandra (b. 2004), and a son, Sverre Magnus (b. 2005).

In addition to his royal duties, in 2001 Haakon helped establish the Crown Prince and Crown Princess’ Humanitarian Fund, which gives grants to various projects, including AIDS-prevention programs in Africa.