Princess Märtha Louise of Norway reveals she was offered the chance to become Queen

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has revealed to Insider Magazine that she was offered the chance to become Queen.

When Princess Märtha Louise of Norway was born in 1971, women were barred from inherited the Norwegian throne. A younger brother, Crown Prince Haakon, was born two years later, and it is he who is destined to become King. However, it all could have changed in 1986.

Princess Märtha Louise said, “I was totally happy growing up, I wasn’t jealous at all. But when I was 15, the Prime Minister at the time was a woman, and she suddenly came up with the idea that this was wrong. I remember she came home to us, with granddad [King Olav V], and we had a discussion about whether we should change the whole system and I should be queen.”

“They said, ‘What do you want, Märtha?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m 15, I don’t know about these things,'” she added. It was eventually decided to keep things the way they were.

“For me, I was like, ‘Phew.’ It is a lot of pressure, and it really is a life that you need to choose and be committed to 100%. So I’m very happy that my brother is next in line, and he’s doing an amazing job. He’s focused on all the right things,” Princess Märtha Louise said.

The law was eventually changed in 1990 to absolute primogeniture, though this only applied to children born after 1990. Princess Märtha Louise did gain succession rights but remained behind her brother and his children in the succession.