King Harald said he was proud when he heard his granddaughter Maud Angelica’s speech by her father’s coffin.
In a new book written by former Aftenposten editor Harald Stanghelle, the king talked about Ari Behn’s suicide.
The speech that King Harald’s granddaughter Maud Angelica gave at the funeral touched many.
“I was proud of her”
“It was powerful to hear it. I had not heard it before, but I knew she was going to do it.
“She had given the speech for a small circle by the stretcher at Ullevål hospital. I was not there. It was a strong speech. I was proud of her,” the king said.
He said that he could not have done it.
The king himself lost his mother when he was 17, while Maud Angelica was 16 when her father died.
“That’s why I say I could not have managed to give that speech,” he noted.
Ari Behn’s suicide
Princess Märtha Louise’s ex-husband took his own life at home in Lommedalen on Christmas Day last year. He was to visit the family at Kongsseteren the same day.
“We were together when it happened. It was a shock. We were so surprised, even though we knew he was in trouble. It’s painful, and it takes a long time to get over (it).
“The fact that we were together when we learned about the death gave us, as grandparents, the opportunity to get closer to our grandchildren. We have come much closer to each other,” the king said in the book.
The family was open early on about the fact that Behn had taken his life, and the suicide also marked the king’s New Year’s speech.
In her funeral speech, Maud Angelica urged people who are struggling mentally to ask for help and not be ashamed.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
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