Oslo mayor calls off wedding following death of King Harald V

Oslo Mayor Anne Lindboe postponed her wedding to fiancé Pål Sandvid on Friday following the death of Norway’s King Harald V earlier that day, her political adviser confirmed to the BBC.

Lindboe had been due to marry Sandvid on Friday, August 28, but the ceremony was called off following the monarch’s death. No new date has yet been set. The couple announced their engagement in June after five years together.

Paying tribute to Harald on Instagram, Lindboe wrote: “It's hard to imagine an Oslo and a Norway without you. You didn't need a crown to be king.”

She added: “Even the majority of Norwegians who never met you in person still felt like they knew you.”

Harald, who reigned for 35 years, died at the national hospital in Oslo, where he had been receiving treatment for a rare blood condition. His son, King Haakon VIII, succeeded him on Friday.

Harald was widely regarded as a popular and reforming monarch who helped modernise Norway’s royal institution. He broke with tradition by marrying a commoner, Queen Sonja, and became a unifying figure during some of the country’s most difficult moments.

The king died one day before his 58th wedding anniversary.

Members of the public gathered outside the Royal Palace in Oslo to lay flowers in his memory. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in a televised memorial address that Norway was “united in grief and gratitude” for Harald’s service and that his “legacy lives on”.

Britain’s King Charles III said he was mourning his “dear cousin”. Harald was a second cousin of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

King Haakon VIII is the great-great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria.

By Tamilla Hasanova