On Friday, September 11, 2026, Princess Astrid of Norway died in Oslo. She was 94. Two days earlier, she had been at Oslo Cathedral, in a wheelchair, saying goodbye to her brother, King Harald V.
Harald had died on August 28, at Rikshospitalet University Hospital, at the age of 89, after reigning for more than three and a half decades. His funeral, on Wednesday, September 9, was the last thing Astrid saw of public life. The procession from the royal palace to the cathedral, thousands of people in the streets, heads of state arriving from all over.
Astrid was the last living daughter of King Olav V and Princess Märtha. When her mother died in 1954, she was just 22 years old and became, overnight, Norway’s first lady. She held that position for fourteen years, until Harald married Sonja Haraldsen in 1968.
She had married Olympic sailor Johan Martin Ferner in 1961. They had five children. He died in 2015, eleven years before her.
In March, she had been hospitalized with pneumonia. Her health had been declining, but no one imagined that saying goodbye to her brother would also be her own.
The new king, Haakon VIII, bid her farewell with a phrase that sums up seventy years of quiet service: “Throughout her life, Princess Astrid represented the Royal House with warmth and dedication”. The government ordered the flags lowered to half-mast throughout the country.
Two funerals, one week, the end of an entire generation.
