Norwegian King Harald's health 'deteriorated' over the weekend, palace says

The health of Norway's 89-year-old King Harald V, in hospital due to complications from a blood condition, "deteriorated" over the weekend, a statement from the palace said.

Europe's oldest reigning monarch is being treated for haemolytic anaemia, a condition caused by an abnormally rapid destruction of red blood cells which leads to fatigue, paleness and shortness of breath.

"The King is receiving antibiotics for a bacterial infection in his blood and has responded to this treatment," the statement said.

He was admitted to Oslo University Hospital on Monday due to fluid retention from the cortisone treatment he is receiving and placed on sick leave for two weeks.

The palace has previously said the king had cancelled his visit to the central region of Trøndelag scheduled for 1-2 September after the end of the previously announced sick leave period.

Several members of his family have visited him in hospital.

The Verdens Gang newspaper reported that his wife, Queen Sonja, their son Crown Prince Haakon, who is acting as regent in Harald's absence, and Haakon's wife Crown Princess Mette-Marit visited him on Sunday, as did the king's sister.

None of them made a statement upon leaving the hospital.

Turbulent year

Harald, who ascended the Norwegian throne in 1991, has had multiple health problems in recent years, forcing him to have a pacemaker fitted and to scale back his official schedule.

But he has always ruled out abdicating, arguing that he took a lifelong oath before the Norwegian Parliament.

In February, he was hospitalised for an infection and dehydration in Tenerife, where he was on a private trip with Queen Sonja.

His wife, also 89, was briefly admitted to hospital in May due to heart problems.

Harald's health woes come at a turbulent time for the Norwegian royal family. Haakon's wife Mette-Marit is under scrutiny for her ties to the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Documents published in January in the United States revealed her sustained and at times intimate correspondence with Epstein between 2011-2014, at a time when the American financier had already been convicted.

Mette-Marit's son from a previous marriage, Marius Borg Høiby, was sentenced in June to four years in prison for two rapes and 32 other charges, including violence against a former partner. He has appealed the verdict.

Suffering herself from a serious lung disease, Mette-Marit, 53, also had to undergo a lung transplant in July.

The royals remain broadly popular with the Norwegian public, in large part to Harald's unifying figure.