King Charles Mourns ‘Dear Cousin’ King Harald V Of Norway: ‘Heartbreaking Loss’

King Charles is remembering King Harald V of Norway after his passing at age 89. On Friday, Aug. 28, the Royal Palace in Oslo announced “with deep grief” that the King had “died peacefully” that morning at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet. Harald was Europe’s oldest monarch and now his son Haakan becomes King at 53 years old. Haakan’s daughter, 22-year-old Princess Ingrid Alexandra, is now heir to the throne. After news broke of Harald’s passing, King Charles released a statement in which he paid tribute to his “dear cousin” as he also shared a photo of himself with wife Queen Camilla, Harald, and Harald’s wife Queen Sonja. “It is with the most profound sadness that my wife and I have learned of the death of my dear cousin, King Harald V of Norway. For thirty-five years, King Harald served his people with unwavering dedication, guiding Norway through times of great change with warmth and humility,” he wrote in part, adding, “As Norway mourns the loss of so towering a figure, my whole family join in remembering a much-loved kinsman and friend whose kindness, compassion and deep sense of duty echoed from across the sea and across the decades.” King Charles additionally penned how he and Queen Camilla extended their “deepest and most heartfelt condolences” to “Queen Sonja and all her family, as Britain shares in Norway’s grief at this time of such heartbreaking loss.”