The next global royal wedding appears to be set—Tatler reports that Princess Martha Louise of Norway, 52—the daughter of King Harald V and Queen Sonja—will marry her second husband, Durek Verrett, 49, this August in a four day long celebration. Durek is a Los Angeles-based shaman who has influenced the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Nina Dobrev; he and Martha Louise have been together since May 2019 and became engaged in June 2022.
“The wedding looks set to be one of the most beautiful high society weddings of the year,” Tatler reports. “The couple’s nuptials have been long awaited and will be celebrated in midsummer with an incomparable Norwegian backdrop.”
Their actual wedding day is planned for August 31 of this year, “a major milestone in a romance which has captured the imagination of the media and of people worldwide,” Tatler writes. “The couple have the blessing of King Harald and Queen Sonja and will look forward to celebrating their union in a four day celebration at Gerainger, a fjord listed as a UNESCO heritage site.”
Guests will arrive on Thursday, August 29 for a meet and greet party, Norwegian outlet SE og HØR writes, “a mingling occasion to help guests from around the world get to know each other.” Tatler writes that “In line with the low-key, boho vibe encapsulated by Martha Louise and Durek, the party looks set to be very laid back, with a notable absence of royal formality. The dress code is ‘sexy and cool.’”
For the second day of celebrations on August 30, a three-hour boat trip is planned to give guests the opportunity to appreciate the majesty of the Norwegian coastline. Some sights seen will include the Seven Sisters Waterfall, an immense cascade of glacial meltwater which plunges into the fjord from 250 meters. Following this boat trip, an evening of dinner and dancing will serve as a precursor to the big wedding day on August 31.
Martha Louise’s love life “has sometimes been a troubled terrain,” Tatler writes. Back in 2002, Martha Louise gave up her “Her Royal Highness” title (and her annual $1 million allowance) to marry Ari Behn, a commoner. (Behn, with whom Martha Louise shares three daughters, died by suicide on Christmas Day 2019, two years after their divorce.) Since beginning her relationship with Durek five years ago, Martha Louise has courted criticism for commercializing royalty and making money off of her royal title, including the seminar led by the couple called “The Princess and the Shaman” in 2019. Afterwards, Martha Louise issued an apology for the seminar, writing on Instagram “It was a mistake, and I understand that it provokes when the princess title is used this way.” Afterwards, it was agreed that Martha Louise would only use her “princess title” when representing the Royal House of Norway and not in a commercial context. (It should be noted that Martha Louise has long been seen as a controversial figure, announcing back in 2007 that she was a clairvoyant and, vis a vis, opening an alternative therapy center—known colloquially as her “angel school”—to communicate with angels and the dead.)
Five months after she and Durek were engaged that June, in November 2022 Martha Louise relinquished what remaining royal duties she had left to concentrate on alternative medicine. (Though she no longer carries her HRH and hasn’t for over 20 years, she did and still does maintain her title of Princess of Norway, a decision made by her father, the King; she remains fourth in the line of succession to the Norwegian throne.)
“In consultation with His Majesty the King and the rest of the immediate family, I have decided that, at the present time, I will not continue my official duties as patron of various organizations,” Martha Louise said in a statement. “Someone else in the family will take over my role. I wish the organizations the best of luck with the important work they are doing.” The princess wrote on Instagram to say that “the process with the family has been amicable and loving.”
Martha Louise has referred to Durek as her “twin flame”; Durek has called her a “Goddess, who I honor and worship.” As the couple’s five-year journey to the altar nears its end and they prepare for a new life as husband and wife, it’s worth looking back to Martha Louise’s original Instagram post announcing their relationship, in which she wrote, simply yet profoundly, “I choose from love. And that’s it.”
