Marrying into a royal family isn't an easy transition for anyone who has grown up outside of palace walls. But controversial Hollywood shaman Durek Verrett brought new meaning to the term "fish out of water"—and made plenty of headlines—when he married Princess Märtha Louise of Norway in 2024. Now, the couple's surprising romance is coming to the small screen after Netflix released the trailer for its new documentary, Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story.
Princess Märtha Louise is the eldest child of King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, and in 2022, relinquished her official duties to the crown "to create a clearer dividing line between her business activities and her role as a member of the royal family." She confirmed her relationship with Verrett in 2019, and per Netflix, the new documentary "follows the couple as they prepare for their wedding, seek spiritual guidance, and navigate a media storm."
"Marrying into the royal family, it's just very, very surreal," Verrett says in the trailer, sharing that his then-girlfriend "didn't give me any clues on anything" before meeting her parents. "When I met the queen and king, they were just staring at me," he says, explaining that Märtha Louise told him, "just be yourself."
"Because he's a shaman, they say that he's dangerous for the royal family and that I'm brainwashed," Märtha Louise—a self-proclaimed clairvoyant herself—says in the trailer. "A lot of people expected me to be a certain way and live up to what I'm supposed to be, and I don't," she adds.
The documentary will show how the couple navigated their high-profile relationship ahead of their wedding, and in one clip, Shaman Durek discusses the media firestorm surrounding the pair. "The press doesn't like me," he admits. "It's not easy being the first black man marrying into the European royal family and I'm the first."
As for their nuptials, which were attended by members of the Norwegian royal family, Verrett gets straight to the point. "I would like a royal wedding, because I'm going to be a royal," he says in the trailer. His spiritual side certainly played out in the preparations, and at one point Verrett asks "what about the astrologer?" when discussing wedding timings with a team.
In one scene, Verrett confesses that he didn't expect to marry a woman. "She fell in love with me first," he shares. "I was a little apprehensive because I thought maybe I'm going to end up with a man. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter if it's a male or a female or it could be another being from another planet."
Tiger King director Rebecca Chaiklin is responsible for the project, and in a statement, she wrote, “When I saw the Vanity Fair article about a princess and a shaman falling in love, it instantly caught my eye. Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek were two completely unexpected, wild, and charismatic characters from totally different worlds, navigating a swirl of controversy and fighting for love. It was a great fish-out-of-water story—and they were so funny. So I just had to convince them (and the spirits) that I was 'lit' enough to be the one to tell their story."
Royal Rebels will premiere on Netflix September 16.
