Law change to allow Sydney University princess the right to stand in as regent

Exclusive: The 22-year-old Norwegian princess who moved to Australia for university will take on a greater public role to help her struggling royal family.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra is second-in-line to the throne and is now at the centre of a proposed change to the constitution that will allow her to act as regent.

Norway’s monarchy has found itself lacking in senior royals to perform constitutional duties as it deals with several unprecedented crises.

“It seems realities have caught up with them,” Norwegian historian and author Trond Norén Isaksen told nine.com.au.

The move would bring Norway’s Royal House in line with other royal families across Europe, including in Britain and Denmark, who have back-up royals to stand in for the monarch when needed, such as when they are ill or travelling abroad.

In the House of Windsor, those royals are called Counsellors of State and include Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales. In Denmark, Queen Mary and Crown Prince Christian, who will turn 21 later this year, can act as regent if King Frederik X is absent.

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Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit lung transplant a success, palace confirms

Under Norway’s current system the only designated regent for the 89-year-old King Harald V is his son and heir, Crown Prince Haakon.

In the past few years, King Harald has been in and out of hospital − most recently in February while he was on holidays in Tenerife − leaving the crown prince to take on the bulk of official duties both at home and overseas.

But now, Haakon is taking time away from some of his royal work to care for his wife Crown Princess Mette-Marit who received a lung transplant this week.

Her doctors described the life-saving surgery as “successful”, however the 52-year-old princess will remain in Oslo’s National Hospital for several weeks “to adjust medications, handle any complications and engage in rehabilitation”.

Confirmation of Mette-Marit’s transplant came from the Royal House on Wednesday, just 12 days after she had been put on the waiting list.

Crown Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit’s two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus, 20, have visited her in hospital. So, too, has Mette-Marit’s eldest son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby.

Høiby was granted special release from Ila Prison to visit his mother before and after the surgery, escorted by police as he was taken through the hospital’s back entrance.

On Monday, the 29-year-old was jailed for four years after he was convicted of raping two women but acquitted of two other rapes. He was also convicted of abusing an ex-girlfriend and of causing serious bodily harm to another partner, along with drugs and traffic offences. His lawyers have appealed and the case will be retried, in full, later this year or next.

The criminal trial, and the health issues affecting the King and his wife Queen Sonja, who also has heart troubles, along with Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s lung transplant, has caused enormous strain on the monarchy.

The Royal House was also dragged into the Jeffrey Epstein saga through the release of the Epstein Files by the US Justice Department, revealing the crown princess had been friends with the convicted sex offender. She apologised twice and described her contact with Epstein as having showed “poor judgement”, admitting it was “simply embarrassing”. In a television interview in March, Mette-Marit claimed she was “manipulated and deceived” by him.

Amidst all of this Princess Ingrid Alexandra has escaped relatively scandal-free and, until recently, was largely kept out of the spotlight.

In April last year, she joined her parents and grandparents for a state banquet inside the royal palace, the first time the princess had taken part in such a formal occasion and the highest level of a foreign visit. Two months later, she and Prince Sverre carried out their first joint engagement, without their parents, at a Red Cross event.

In July, the princess moved to Australia to begin a three-year degree at Sydney University in social science, specialising in international relations and politics. She was visited by the crown prince couple a month after her big move.

In her first ever sit-down interview, done on campus at Sydney University in November, Ingrid Alexandra said her course would be relevant for her future job as Queen of Norway.

“I definitely think that my education will be very relevant to the job I will do in the future,” Princess Ingrid Alexandra said.

“I think it is important to have a basic understanding of the political system, of international relations, and how things work.”

On May 17, nine.com.au was there when the princess carried out her first public appearance in Australia, attending Norway’s National Day celebrations in Sydney.

Days later, a 63-year-old man was issued with a two-year restraining order after sending the princess a letter to her university dorm, claiming he wanted to be her friend.

But Ingrid Alexandra’s time in Australia was unexpectedly cut short when she left Sydney to return to Oslo on June 2  to be with her mother. Three days later, the Royal House announced Mette-Marit was officially on the transplant waiting list.

Ingrid Alexandra has since transferred to the University of Oslo where she will continue her studies on exchange.

Her grandfather King Harald has been reluctant to push the young princess into her public role, preferring to give her the time to focus on her studies and to enjoy her youth before the burden of responsibility.

But recent circumstances have forced a re-think within the Royal House.

“The royal family have long insisted that the children must be given time and space to be young, study and find their way, and when the king has been asked whether his granddaughter might take on more duties he has usually rejected it outright,” Isaksen told nine.com.au

“When he was asked the question again last week, he said ‘We have not come that far yet’ which clearly means that they are now considering it rather than ruling it out.”

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Why Prince George is going to Eton, and what it says about his future as king

Princess Ingrid Alexandra is popular among Norwegians and well-liked. The fresh-faced royal could be exactly what the embattled monarchy needs. In January, she carried out her first solo tour of Norway’s northern regions in what was a major step towards her time on the throne.

It was Isaksen who first suggested the constitutional regency reform two years ago when there was no-one with the correct authority to step in during a political crisis.

“The idea was based both on practical reasons and reasons of principle,” Isaksen said.

Under the current system, the cabinet can step in as acting head of state to “reshuffle, dismiss or re-appoint itself and this can be exploited in a crisis”, he said. But in practice this rarely happens.

“When the PM sacked the health secretary in 2024, she remained in [the] post for a week as the king was ill and the crown prince was in the USA. It was therefore only when the crown prince returned that she could be formally dismissed.”

Parliamentarians will vote on the recommendation on November 3, where it will require a two-thirds majority.

“The practical reasons are that the king is old and often ill, while the crown prince travels a lot,” Isaksen said.

“If parliament votes in favour of the amendment, as it seems it will, it will make things easier for the crown prince as his daughter can then step in for him and her grandfather as regent.

“Furthermore, it will make it possible for her to start building experience for her future role as head of state.”

The princess will one day make history by becoming Norway’s first queen regnant in more than 600 years.

While Isaksen would not be drawn on the qualities that have endeared Princess Ingrid Alexandra to her subjects, he said she was suitable to act as regent by way of her position as eventual heir.

“In a monarchy such things are not based on personal qualities,” he said.

“But of course parliament would have been unlikely to back the proposal if the person currently holding that position had been seen as unsuitable.”

Earlier this week, Crown Prince Haakon was due to host a reception for consuls at the Royal Palace, a role previously performed by the king and queen but now handed over to their son. Haakon had to pull out at the last minute to be with Mette-Marit, leaving the Lord Chamberlain − the most senior official within the royal household − to host the event instead in a highly unusual move.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra, instead, could have potentially stepped in for her father.

The king and queen’s other daughter, and Crown Prince Haakon’s sister, is Princess Märtha Louise. But the 54-year-old hasn’t represented the Royal House for many years after stepping back from official duties over numerous controversies relating to her commercial endeavours and the use of her ‘princess’ title.

Last year, there were renewed calls for Princess Märtha Louise to be stripped of her royal title after she and her American husband Shaman Durek Verrett, exploited their royal connections in the 2025 Netflix documentary Rebel Royals.

It was another breach of an agreement made between the Royal House and Princess Märtha Louise which stated she would not use her royal links for commercial gain.

For its continued survival and relevance, Norway’s monarchy would do well to utilise the youthful and competent Princess Ingrid Alexandra.

Her father previously joked his daughter “would have liked to have been a pro surfer on the World Tour”, had she not been born heir to the throne. In 2020, she was named junior surfing champion in country-wide competition. The young royal is also a keen skier and does kickboxing.

In April last year the princess completed her military service after spending 15 months as an engineer soldier and rifleman with the Engineer Battalion in Brigade North. Ingrid Alexandra’s compulsory training was initially planned for 12 months but she extended it by a further three.

Speaking after the end of her training, and potentially alluding to her future on the throne, the princess said: “I think the most important thing I have learned is that you can do much more than you think, and you are much stronger together.

“Whether it’s in a team or in a platoon or company, you get a lot more done when you’re not alone.”

Norway’s gain is Australia’s loss as it is unlikely the princess will return to Sydney to finish her degree, despite her father stressing she would be back.

Last week, before news of Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s transplant was announced, Isaksen suggested Ingrid Alexandra would remain in Norway.

And as we now know, she is needed by her family’s side more than ever.

“In the time to come, [Ingrid Alexandra and Sverre Magnus] will both be needed to keep the wheels of the monarchy turning and I personally doubt it will be possible for the princess to resume her studies in Australia, as Sydney is simply too far away from Oslo for her to be able to combine her studies with royal duties.”