Maud Angelica Behn

Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person Template:Norwegian Royal Family Maud Angelica Behn (born 29 April 2003) is a member of the Norwegian royal family, however, she is a private citizen and holds no royal title. She is the firstborn child of Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and her late husband Ari Behn and the eldest grandchild of King Harald V of Norway and Queen Sonja.

Behn came to national attention with the speech she gave at her father's funeral and published her first book in 2021.<ref name= "Today"/>

In 2022, she competed in the Norwegian version of Masked Singer, Maskorama.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Birth and baptism

Maud Angelica Behn was born on 29 April 2003 at The National Hospital, a University Hospital in Oslo, Norway, where her mother had also been born.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Her great-great-grandmother was Maud of Wales, youngest daughter of King Edward VII of the United Kingdom.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Behn was christened at Slottskapellet, Royal Palace, Oslo, Norway on 2 July 2003, the one-hundredth birthday of her great-grandfather, King Olav V of Norway. Her godparents are her grandfather King Harald V, her uncle Crown Prince Haakon, Princess Alexandra of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, her aunt Anja Sabrina Bjørshol, her mother's cousin Marianne Ulrichsen, the actor Kåre Conradi and the politician Trond Giske.<ref>Camilla Flaatten, "Nå skal hun døpes Hvem blir fadder til lille Emma Tallulah?", Nettavisen, 12.11.08, accessed 14 February 2022 (in Norwegian)</ref>

She has two younger sisters, Leah Isadora Behn, born on 8 April 2005, and Emma Tallulah Behn, born on 29 September 2008.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The web site of the Norwegian royal family names the members of the family as King Harald and Queen Sonja, Crown Prince Haakon, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Prince Sverre Magnus, Princess Märtha Louise, her three daughters, and Princess Astrid.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Succession to the throne

Maud Angelica Behn is the eldest grandchild of Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja. In 1990, the Norwegian constitution was changed, introducing full cognatic primogeniture to the Norwegian throne, so that the eldest child, regardless of sex, comes first in the line of succession. However, this change was made without displacing Crown Prince Haakon, as it only affects those born after 1989. Controversially, women born between 1971 and 1989 (in practice, only Behn's mother Märtha Louise), were given succession rights, but primogeniture would not apply. At present, she is fifth in the line of succession to the Norwegian throne.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Education

The Behn family lived in Islington, London, then in New York, and finally in Lommedalen, a valley outside Oslo.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In the autumn of 2009, Maud Angelica Behn was enrolled at the Bærum Waldorf School (Template:Langx), an independent Steiner school in Bærum, a suburb west of Oslo.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Family

On 5 August 2016, her parents began divorce proceedings,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> which were finalized in 2017.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ari Behn died by suicide on Christmas Day, 2019, and was buried in Oslo Cathedral.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Behn made a speech at her father's funeral and later talked about his death. In an article devoted to the speech, Aftenposten commented "It does not get more powerful than this".<ref>Tine Dommerud, "Støre om Maud Angelicas tale: – Mektigere blir det ikke", Aftenposten, 3 January 2020, accessed 14 February 2022 (in Norwegian)</ref>

For her public thoughts on mental illness and suicide, she was awarded the Acute Psychiatry Prize for 2020. In October 2021, she published her first book, Threads of Tears,<ref name= "Today">Camilla Einem, Maud Angelica Behn is set to publish her first book, norwaytoday.info, 6 October 2021</ref> her debut as a poet and illustrator, which tells the story of a girl whose life is dark but who learns to weave the threads she cries.<ref>Sari Nurmo, Prinsessa Märtha Louisen Maud-tytär rikkoo tabuja mielenterveysongelmien ympäriltä: "Kirjani ei perustu omaan suruuni ja tunteisiini", seiska.fi, 5 February 2022, accessed 14 February 2022 (in Finnish)</ref> Ten thousand copies were printed,<ref>Camilla Norli, Maud Angelica gir ut bok - skriver om sorgen som tok overhånd, vg.no, 11 September 2021, accessed 14 February 2022 (in Norwegian)</ref> and on release the book went straight to first place on the Norwegian Booksellers Association bestseller list.<ref>Maud Angelica rett til topps, bok365.no, 29 October 2021, accessed 14 February 2022 (in Norwegian)</ref><ref>Kjetil Stoveland, Maud Angelica Behn: Topper listene, Dagbladet, 29 October 2021, accessed 14 February 2022 (in Norwegian)</ref>

Behn regularly publishes her own drawings on Instagram.<ref>Anja Wöhrer, Tochter Maud: "Ich muss einige Dinge für mich behalten", Bunte, 11 January 2021, accessed 14 February 2022 (in German)</ref> In 2021, Princess Märtha Louise stated that she was planning to move to the United States with her daughters when the COVID-19 pandemic was out of the way, but they did not.<ref>"PRINCESS PLANS TO MOVE TO THE US: The royal said that her children will 'of course join'" Hola!, 6 April 2021</ref>

In June 2025, she came out as bisexual through an Instagram post with images from Oslo Pride celebrations.<ref>Happy Pride fra en bifil person!, 29 June 2025 (in Norwegian)</ref>

External links

• 3 eyed cat, Instagram profile of Maud Angelica Behn