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Norway

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway speaks about divorce

Princess Märtha Louise of Norway has spoken publicly for the first time since announcing her divorce from her husband of fourteen years, Ari Behn, on the website of Soulspring, which she co-founded with business partner Elisabeth Norden.

She said: “I have the position I have in Norway, which means I have to share the things happening in my life whether positive or negative and, as you know, I’m going through a divorce, which is a very painful period in my life. You can work at being more honest with yourself, and then deal directly with your unique and deep feelings. Of course, it is difficult and tedious, but it also means that you can process it and recover faster…Without that knowledge, I would not be here now.”

Princess Märtha Louise announced the divorce last month. The couple has three daughters, Maud Angelica Behn, who was born on 29 April 2003, Leah Isadora Behn, who was born on 8 April 2005 and Emma Tallulah Behn, who was born on 29 September 2008.

“Life does not always go smoothly. Both Ari and I have experienced this. Most clearly, life has made some antics that we had never envisaged. These days we were mainly apart. We are ending the marriage but we are remaining together in parenthood.

It is unspeakably sad for both of us to discover that the road ahead does not go together in the way that it used to. We have, as so many grown apart – to places we no longer meet as we did before. It is terrible to experience that there is nothing more we can do. We have tried everything for a long time and we still can not be where we were before, making it impossible for us to continue.

We feel guilty because we are no longer able to create the safe harbour that our children deserve. But we hope and believe that we will manage to hold on to friendship through what lies ahead.

We pray and hope that we get peace in this sensitive process. Children need time to digest, grieve and find new footing – each one separately.We are just people, too. ”