Dave's Travel Journals
Mette-Marit
Oslo, Norway: August 24, 2001
By Dave Fox
When Mette-Marit started experimenting with drugs many years ago, she probably never thought she'd end up having to explain her actions on the front page of every tabloid in Norway. When she gave birth to a son without being married, she probably didn't think anyone would think much of it. Half the children born in Norway today are born out of wedlock. It's usually not a big deal here.
When I arrived in Oslo two nights ago, she was the lead story on the evening news, telling the press to leave her alone. She said she had made her past mistakes and she had gotten over that period in her life. After the press conference, even the king of Norway commented, calling her honest and brave.
Mette-Marit certainly never expected all the attention she's been getting, never thought the press would follow her little boy, Marius, to kindergarten, or interview her mother about what kind of a daughter she was.
Mette-Marit got over her drug problem and has been happy raising her son. Once she had her life together, she went out one night and met a guy named Haakon. She fell in love with Haakon. He fell in love with her too. Tomorrow Haakon and Mette-Marit are getting married.
Haakon happens to be the prince of Norway.
Not everyone here has been happy with the engagement. The rumors of Mette-Marit's past drug use, the child out of wedlock, they're not very royal. Unfortunately, a lot of people here have chosen to criticize the engagement, rather than see it as a story of triumph.
The odds of Mette-Marit and Haakon ever meeting were tiny given their vastly different lives. But they found each other somehow and they found happiness together. It's sad that some people's own lives are so pathetically dull that they have had to judge Mette-Marit's past rather than celebrating her present and applauding her radically successful turn-around in life.
But Prince Haakon is a down-to-earth prince with enough real-world knowledge to not let other people's judgements drag him down.
So Prince Haakon, your majesty, if you should happen to log on to davethefox.com before your wedding tomorrow, I just want you to know that I think your wife-to-be is pretty cute and I think that you and she and Marius will make a cool family.
The wedding is happening three blocks from my hotel. My invitation was sadly lost in the mail, however. And besides, I have a tour to lead. So I will be on the road out of Oslo by 7:30 tomorrow morning, watching the festivities at night on TV at a mountain lodge in the idyllic Middle of Nowhere.
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