Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, and on Friday, December 19, the Norwegian royal issued an update on her chronic lung disease. As she revealed to Norwegian media outlet NRK, the future queen of Norway will need to undergo a lung transplant due to the recent developments in her health.
Pulmonary fibrosis is a disease in which scar tissue builds up in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe and get enough oxygen. Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who is married to the country's future king, Crown Prince Haakon, told NRK that she's spent the past six months "taking new tests, and then we have had a number of conversations this fall about lung transplantation."
"That is what is new, that we are starting to approach that step," she shared in the broadcaster's Year with the Royal Family program at their home in Skaugum. "It has been…It has been a long process to get there for me mentally," the crown princess admitted.
Mette-Marit, who shares daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra and son Prince Sverre Magnus with Crown Prince Haakon, revealed that her pulmonary fibrosis has progressed "faster" than anticipated.
"I have always hoped that we would be able to keep the disease in check with medication, and the development has actually been quite slow up until now. Whereas now the development has been faster than both I and the doctors had hoped for," the future queen shared.
Crown Prince Haakon also noted the difference in his wife's health, sharing, "We have seen that she is struggling more to breathe."
The crown princess said that it was tough both for herself and her family to make the decision to move forward, sharing, "Just thinking about the idea that this is the next step is quite demanding, because it is an operation with a lot of risk associated with it."
The timeline for her operation has not been set, but in a palace statement, Professor Are Martin Holm of Oslo University Hospital's pulmonary unit said, "We are approaching the time when a lung transplant must be performed, and we are making the necessary preparations so that it will be possible when that time comes."
