Celebrity
Norway’s future queen, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, is moving to Australia to study at Sydney University
Australia will soon become home to Norway’s future queen, who is moving to Sydney to study.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra will attend Sydney University full-time from August, Norway’s Royal House has announced.
The 21-year-old is second-in-line to the throne after her father, Crown Prince Haakon.
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Her grandfather is King Harald V, who is Europe’s oldest-reigning monarch at 88. His relationship and marriage to Queen Sonja was recently dramatised for television.
Princess Ingrid will begin a bachelor’s degree in social science, specialising in international relations and political economy.
She will live in student housing on the university campus, the palace said.
“The Princess will be a full-time student and looks forward to concentrating on her studies in the years to come,” it added.
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Her move to Sydney follows that of Count Nikolai of Monpezat, who completed a semester at the University of Technology in late 2023.
Nikolai, who is the nephew of Denmark’s King Frederik X, made the most of his time in Australia by travelling to various parts of the country including visiting his aunty, Queen Mary’s, relatives in Tasmania.
Weeks after his arrival in September, 2023, Nikolai sat down with 9honey at a Surry Hills café where he spoke about growing up as a member of the Danish royal family, the change in his title, his modelling career, and of course, Australian-born Queen Mary.
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He and girlfriend Benedikte Thoustrup now split their time between Australia and Europe and were most recently seen at Australian Fashion Week.
Like Count Nikolai and the Danish royals, Norway’s royal family also belong to the House of Glücksburg.
Princess Alexandra’s move to Sydney will take the young royal away from official duties for three years, however there is the chance she could return home during semester breaks.
Although Princess Ingrid is heir, after her father, she has only recently begun carrying out occasional appearances at public events. She does not take part in as many official duties as royals from neighbouring countries such as Denmark and Sweden.
In April, she joined her parents, Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, for a state banquet inside the royal palace in Oslo hosted for Iceland’s visiting presidential couple.
It was the first time Princess Ingrid has taken part in such a formal occasion and the highest level of a foreign visit. For the occasion, Princess Ingrid wore a tiara gifted on her 18th birthday in 2022.
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Her 18th also saw the young royal given an office inside the Royal Palace where members of the royal family conduct their work.
The Norwegian royal family has been in the headlines for unfavourable reasons in the past six months.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit has had to take extended sick leave due to her chronic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition she was diagnosed with in 2018.
Last month the royal household confirmed the Crown Princess’ condition had “progressed” and that her “daily symptoms and ailments that affect her ability to perform her duties”.
Her son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, was arrested last August on charges of assault and rape. He has no royal title or official duties but the scandal has plunged the monarchy into a crisis not seen before.
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