Norway’s royal family has been in the gossip pages for years and most of it has been about Princess Märtha Louise. Martha’s brother, Prince Haakon, is the heir, which freed up Martha to do commercial work like lecture series on angels and such. Years ago, Martha met an American man, Shaman Durek Verrett, in California. They ended up falling in love, and in 2022, they got engaged. Her family sort of freaked out. Martha was already limited in how she used her royal titles, but post-engagement, the family made her renounce her royal role. Her mother gave kind of a bitchy interview about how Americans don’t know anything about kingdoms and royal life. That being said, the House of Glücksburg is marginally less dysfunctional than the House of Windsor. Martha and Shaman Durek had their wedding in Norway, and her family all came out to celebrate.
Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek Verrett have tied the knot! As part of their multi-day wedding celebration, the couple officially got married in front of 350 guests in an Aug. 31 ceremony that took place in Geiranger on the west coast of Norway.
The wedding was attended by members of Norway’s royal family, including the parents of the bride, King Harald and Queen Sonja. Princess Märtha Louise’s younger brother, Crown Prince Haakon, along with his wife, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, and their two children together, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus, also joined the festivities.
Princess Märtha Louise, 52, and Shaman Durek, 49, hosted several events leading up to their wedding ceremony. Celebrations kicked off on Aug. 29 in Alesund, where guests gathered in the garden of Hotel 1904 for a welcome party with a “‘sexy and cool’ dress code,” according to Hello! Magazine. The following day, guests joined the bride and groom for a boat trip along the Geiranger Fjord, a Unesco World Heritage Site. Photos showed the bride and groom arriving for the outing, with Märtha Louise sporting a black leather ensemble with a colorful shirt and boots while Durek opted for a brown outfit and sunglasses.
Hello! reported that a “Latin American-themed pre-wedding party” would be held at Hotel Union on the eve of the wedding ceremony.
If you’re wondering about the locale, they did not marry in any kind of royal palace or anything. They basically chose a scenic Norwegian village and a parish priest. I’m sort of surprised they even decided to marry in Norway – they’re both based out of LA these days, but maybe Martha wanted her family to be able to come to her wedding. Her wedding gown was a bespoke look by Tina Steffenakk Hermansen. She also wore a tiara gifted to her when she was 18 years old.
I’m sure a lot of people in Norway and in Martha’s family probably think this will never last. Maybe it won’t, but they’ve already been together for five years or so. I think it would be different if Martha lived in Norway full-time and they had to live and work alongside her family. But they’re going back to LA, I’m sure.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Wedding of the Norwegian Princess Martha Louise and American Durek Verrett at Hotel Union Featuring: Princess Martha Louise, Durek Verrett Where: Geiranger, Norway When: 31 Aug 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Wedding of the Norwegian Princess Martha Louise and American Durek Verrett at Hotel Union Featuring: Princess Martha Louise, Durek Verrett Where: Geiranger, Norway When: 31 Aug 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Wedding of the Norwegian Princess Martha Louise and American Durek Verrett at Hotel Union Featuring: Princess Martha Louise, Durek Verrett Where: Geiranger, Norway When: 31 Aug 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Wedding of the Norwegian Princess Martha Louise and American Durek Verrett at Hotel Union Featuring: Princess Martha Louise, Durek Verrett Where: Geiranger, Norway When: 31 Aug 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Wedding of the Norwegian Princess Martha Louise and American Durek Verrett at Hotel Union Featuring: Princess Martha Louise, Durek Verrett Where: Geiranger, Norway When: 31 Aug 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
I, too, am very sceptical. But they look happy, I can’t lie.
Who knows. Crazier things have happened, maybe they are the real deal
Felicidades! 💐 i don’t keep up with them, but they look happy.
“A Latin American themed pre wedding feast”. A little bit like saying “A European themed pre wedding feast”…. what is that, Greek? Irish? Italian? Dutch? Likewise, there are lots of different countries and cultures in Latin America.
Congrats – looked like a lovely wedding.
She’s known for being quite the hippy so they seem to compliment each other in that way but yeah, who knows if it will last – wasn’t he exposed as a conman with his ‘healing’ work (claiming to cure cancer or something)?
Yes, he has said some weird and disturbing things about disease and healing. At one point, his book claimed that kids get cancer because they are unhappy, and there was a huge outcry. He apologized, but I am leery of anyone with those kinds of ideas. I don’t blame her mother one bit.
Yup. He’s a fraud. It’s like the train wreck you can’t look away from. Clothing on the couple all weekend was awful.
I am trying to overcome my skepticism about him being a shaman and her lecturing on angels, and so I will say that maybe they get each other’s beliefs and lifestyles and will last longer than we think.
This may be unfair, but if he were white, I doubt her family would have freaked out, even if he is a conman. Royals don’t like Black people in the family. But somebody like Mike Tindall? Sure.
They absolutely would have freaked out if he were white. Of the current crop of 1st in line and on the throne there were freakouts galore (Letizia, Maxima, Daniel, Mette-Marit, Sofia Hellqvist…).
And he’s still….. I would freak out if someone like him were to come into the family. The things he’s said and claimed are completely crazy.
Carl Philip isn’t 1st in line to the Swedish throne. He may well not have had the freedom to marry someone with a background like Sofia Hellqvist if he were…
I disagree, @brassy. Before she even met Durek, Martha’s duties were curtailed quite a bit because of some of her publications and beliefs. She had been asked to not use her royal connection in relation to her work, a line that she would constantly step over. Then, you throw into the mixed Durek with some of his off-putting ideas and I think it was a no-brainer that she was asked to step away from her remaining Royal duties. To give their Queen the benefit of the doubt, I think she was referring to Durek not understanding the negative ramifications upon the Royal family caused by some of his statements, e.g., the Press, public opinion, viability of the monarchy, etc. from what I understand, they have never asked Durek to stop making incendiary statements but they have come up with a reasonable solution, feel free to continue making wacky comments but just not as working membets of the royal family.
I have never gotten the impression that the royal family has tried to dissuade Martha from marrying Durek. On the contrary, a couple of years ago King Harold condemned the racism to which Durek had been subjected. Durek was invited to Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s 18th birthday celebrations, which were a big official do, and it appears as though he is becoming a welcome member of their family.
Of all the current royal families I think that the Norwegians are one of the closest knit, supportive families. When Sussexit was looming, reporters were asking members of royal families all over Europe what they thought. Most bashed the Sussexes but Crown Prince Haakon said something to the effect of: everybody just needs to take a deep breath, relax, talk things through and things will work out. He was the only Royal to approach the matter as a family issue that could be resolved to the benefit of all.
I did not know that both Durek and Martha are a few fries short of a Happy Meal so I stand corrected. 😔
They closed ranks though. The entire family was there, including elderly Princess Ragnild, the kings sister. Plus Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden with Daniel. For a second wedding full of controversy on part their parts getting a king plus three future monarchs is pretty good.
The Dutch also sent two Royals. Princess Laurentian and her husband.
For me (and they owe me nothing!) it was a pretty boring traditional wedding. With two whack jobs such as Ms. Angel & Mr. Shaman as the main event, this was a pretty ho hum affair (though lovely location).
OK, but Verrett is f–king crazy. He thinks casual sex attracts demons (which only affect women, of course), that children will themselves to have cancer, and that chemo is a grift. He says parents should yell at children with behavioral disorders to “exorcise” the demons supposedly causing the behavior, has a history of domestic violence, and his own mother and other relatives consider him dangerous. That’s not even getting into his constantly changing backstory. He’s not some sort of wacky-but-harmless mystic type.
If none of that was a deal breaker for Martha, maybe she is the crazy one. 🤔
When people tell or show you who they are, believe them. She married him with eyes wide open. She is either aligned with his beliefs and accepts them or she loves him regardless of his beliefs, behavior or past.
So many fundamentally useless royal families, so much grift.
Why on earth does ‘royalty’ survive? How do they improve the lives of anyone except their own? I find this whole level of privileged existence mystifying.
From one cult to another. Free Princess Märtha.
More proof that bloodlines and family names don’t make one person any better than another. She’s not too bad, but this guy she’s married, is bad news.
The best thing to do in these circumstances, is to wish the happy couple well. But I have to admit I really, really don’t like him. I saw a docu about him — that he himself did — he just came across as a con. I’ll leave it at that.
I met him in 2012. His boyfriend at the time held a benefit for his kidney transplant and I donated my services to the benefit. Later I contacted his office for some spiritual guidance from him but it was $500. I asked if it would be possible to get a discount because I donated 5 hours of my time but they said no. Probably for the best because it saved me money and I don’t think he would have actually helped me in any tangible way.
I am sorry that happened to you. I’m getting strong Rasputin vibes from this one.
Just a little correction. Martha is not based in LA, she lives in Norway.
I just read his wiki page. Wow! Worse than I thought. He’s a real life dangerous version of Titus Andromedon
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titus_Andromedon
He has a terrible background and the bs he spouts about health, s3x etc is alarming, to put it politely. I actually think Martha Louise’s family has acted very graciously towards this union, royals or not. She herself is very peculiar, and most likely Harald and Sonja have found some way to keep track on Durek’s activities and demeanor for her sake. If they’re happy, and his conning is to use his blabber and Martha’s fairy narrative to harmlessly suck money out of wealthy ppl who know no better (Service disclaimers must be the size of a short novel), I guess everything’s fine.
We were in Geiranger the day of the wedding and literally drove by the media and fans camped outside the hotel. We had a trip to Norway planned for more than a year and our car ferry to Geiranger and subsequent four-hour drive south of that area happened to coincide with the day of the wedding (which we learned of two days earlier). While we got a brief glimpse of the king and queen, we were slightly amused and mostly annoyed that the wedding resulted in multihour delays in getting to our next destination (many others appeared to be in the same situation). We hung out in town and grabbed some lunch. Their choice to get married at a mid-level hotel in a touristy town is a little head-scratching when there are so many stunning and private estates in the area, but whatever.
This guy might be a nutjob, but any royal or royalist that accuses him of being a grifter is being hilariously hypocritical.
He is a grifter, sure, but so is every single royal family.
Who writes about him? Who amplifies statements? Who says nothing about skin color but of course the guy is dangerous overall, right? I don’t believe all these nasty things. He may be a crank, whereas shamans are not cranks, but above all he is one thing – black – and Norway has produced a horrific assassin who has a movement behind him. I think it’s great that this royal house and some other royal houses are taking a clear stand. Can anyone imagine that a London palace limg would have gone?
I wish these two people all the luck they can get.