Norway’s Princess Märtha Louise, the daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja and brother of Crown Prince Haakon, will return home this summer after two years living abroad in London. The palace announced she will move with her husband Ari Behn and their three daughters to back Lommedalen in Bærum.
Princess Märtha Louise spoke to Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) at the Norwegian Young Women’s Christian Association home (Kristelig Forening av Unge Kvinner), a hostel that has long enjoyed the royals’ patronage in the elite borough of Holland Park. She said it had been a pleasant few years living in London.
“But now we feel that Norway is beginning to pull a little,” said the princess. “I am very much looking forward to moving home too. It has been fantastic to be here, the children speak English. We have gotten a taste of English life, but it will be nice to move home again too. The children are beginning at the Steiner School, and I am continuing to work both officially and with my business, and Ari (Behn, her author husband) is continuing to write and paint, and do the things he does.”
Princess Märtha Louise said she would miss the relative anonymity of living in Islington, a posh suburb that’s also home to former British prime minister Tony Blair, London Mayor Boris Johnson, and many celebrity artists, musicians, writers and actors.
“I’m really going to miss the people I’ve met,” she said. “It has been very good to get to know the area in London we have lived in, Islington. Great family area with many parks and a good social life. Lovely, actually, to be a little incognito, so maybe we’re going to miss that a little.”
She said the girls have also enjoyed their time in London, but are looking forward to a quieter, more rural lifestyle in Lommedalen.
newsinenglish.no/Emily Woodgate
