Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett: That’s why they were missing from the Christmas service

The Norwegian royal family traditionally attends church services at Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo at Christmas. Noticeably absent this year were Märtha Louise from Norway (53) and her husband Durek Verrett (50). Because the daughter of the Norwegian royal couple knows how much the press likes to report on her, she wanted to get ahead of them this time. , why she and her husband couldn’t attend mass.

“Durek is in the hospital for dialysis, which he has to do three times a week, and today is one of those days,” she explained, sharing several Christmas-themed couple and family pictures. Her husband has had kidney disease for several years and has already received a donor organ from his sister. But this slowly fails, so he has to go to dialysis regularly.

But Märtha Louise herself is also ill and therefore cannot attend the service. “It is sad that we have to justify why we are not in church so as not to give rise to suspicion that there is discord in the family, which is not the case. We still love each other. Luckily,” she continued writing. “We would have been there if we could. But it didn’t work out this year. Merry Christmas!”

Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett, an American “shaman”, have been a couple since 2018. The two got engaged in June 2022 and tied the knot in August 2024.

On that of the Norwegian royal family, the palace shared several photos of the service. Among those present were King Harald V (87) and Queen Sonja (87), Crown Prince Haakon (51) and Crown Princess Mette-Marit (51) as well as their children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra (20) and Prince Sverre Magnus (19).