HRH The Crown Prince of Norway and Miss Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby
August 25, 2001

Welcome to the hattery coverage of our second crown princely wedding in preparation for Crown Princess Victoria's big day!  Like Victoria's wedding will be, this wedding was a tiara affair, and the royal ladies of Europe brought out some of their blingiest bling for the occasion.

Haakon's choice of Mette-Marit was a controversial one.  Not only was she a commoner, she also had a son, Marius, from a previous relationship and had been heavily involved in the drug-and-alcohol fueled party scene in Oslo.  Many thought she was not suited to become the next queen of Norway, but Haakon stood firm.  Mette-Marit publicly apologized for her wild past at a press conference before the wedding, and the two have been happily married now for nearly a decade.  Along with Marius, the crown prince and princess have two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra (who will one day be Norway's queen) and Prince Sverre Magnus.

Wedding Hatters

The woman wearing this very interesting tiara is Countess Ruth of Rosenborg, wife of Count Flemming of Rosenborg (who, sadly, died not long after this wedding in 2002), who was the son of Prince Axel of Denmark and Princess Margaretha of Sweden.  Princess Margaretha was the daughter of Prince Carl of Sweden and Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, and her siblings included Queen Astrid of the Belgians (mother of the current King of the Belgians) and Crown Princess Märtha of Norway (mother of the current King of Norway).

Ingeborg left this tiara, Princess Ingeborg's Star Tiara, to her daughter, Princess Margaretha, from whom Countess Ruth received the piece.  The turquoise-and-diamond star tiara was a wedding gift to Ingeborg from Tsar Nicholas II of Russia.  Since this wedding, Countess Ruth has given the tiara to her daughter-in-law, Countess Jutta of Rosenborg, who likely still has it in her possession.