by Weddings are usually joyous occasions, and royal weddings are twice that, but this weekend’s wedding of Norwegian Princess Märtha Louise and her controversial self-styled shaman partner, African-American bisexual Durek Verrett, will have more than a few members. family there. wanting her to say “I don’t.”
Not that any such criticism would stop Märtha Louise, 52, the rebel princess who chose her beau on the basis of any noble blood. Instead, this is a marriage based on the far-fetched idea that the related couple – both of whom claim to have mystical powers – met in ancient Egypt in the past.
This is the latest extraordinary, and quite frightening, choice by the Norwegian fourth in line to the throne, who calls herself a clairvoyant and, from 2007 to 2018, ran an alternative therapy center known as the “angel school” because she says she can help. healing by communicating with angels.
Märtha Louise, the eldest child of Prince Harald and Crown Princess Sonja, often shocked her nation with such statements. Perhaps, in a strange way, that is the perfect match for Verrett, 49, who boasts that he realized he had shamanic powers at the age of three when he saw his deceased ancestors in the room. He will make history as the first black man to marry into a modern European royal family.
However, the reaction to his participation in 2023 was extremely hostile. “We get comments like ‘It won’t last’,” reveals Verrett. He has even been accused, he says, of “casting spells on him [Märtha Louise] for her to fall in love with me and [that] I’m doing black magic,” and people have made death threats on Instagram. Märtha Louise says: “As a white person, I don’t encounter racism every day, so I don’t know what it is. It’s scary.”
Verrett admits he plays up that “kooky shaman” reputation from time to time. “I’ll call Märtha and say ‘So today I told everyone I’m a reptile’ and she’s like ‘Oh, here we go…'”
But many are struggling to see the funny side of her wedding to a man accused of lying about his origins, using dangerous conspiracy theories, and abusing an ex-partner.
While Märtha Louise spent her childhood in the royal homes of Norway, Verrett grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, born, he claimed publicly, to a wealthy architect father, David, who had servants and a private plane.
However, his mother, Veruschka Urquhart, and her paternal aunt, opera singer Shirley Verrett, are strongly against that. They say that David was actually a contractor who went bankrupt twice, and Urquhart, in an interview with the magazine Se and Hør last year, she warned that her estranged son is a dangerous lying manipulator who has “the brain” of his royal bride.
Verrett responded furiously by sending his mother a cease and desist letter, threatening her with a million dollars, and saying she wasn’t invited to the wedding.
What is not in doubt is that Verrett has a criminal history. In 1991, he was sentenced to five years for felony, arson and trespassing after hosting a party in an unoccupied house which was set on fire. He was arrested again in 1993 and 2011 for crimes including fee evasion and threatening his Los Angeles landlord with murder and “black magic”. In 2015, he was charged with assault and battery following a domestic violence attack on his then-wife, the late Hank Greenberg.
But it’s Verrett’s wild health claims that are most concerning. In his book 2019 Hacking Spiritleft by publisher Cappelen Damm, he declares that children get cancer if they are unhappy, chemotherapy is a scam, and women must buy his exercises to “clean out” their vaginas because casual sex attracts spirits underground.
In 2022, Verrett sold a coin he promised would cure Covid until Norwegian authorities shut him down. He runs about 5G and the Illuminati, says he has risen from the dead, and knew the September 11th attacks would happen but chose not to intervene. Verrett also claims that naughty children and suicidal people are possessed by evil spirits.
One might think that this shocking statement would particularly bother Märtha Louise, since her first husband, the writer Ari Behn, committed suicide, but she has been dating and working with Verrett since May 2019. Although they believe they first met hundreds of years ago: “I have memories of us in Egypt,” Verrett said. “She was my queen and I was pharaoh.”
Märtha Louise stepped down as a senior member of the Norwegian royal family in November 2022 but senior figures continue to criticize the union. In 2023, the politician Ole Henrik Krat Bjørkholt labeled Verrett an “unscrupulous and dangerous charlatan”, and many in the Norwegian media called for Märtha Louise to be stripped of the title of “princess”. She recently used that title and her royal monogram on a custom gin created for the wedding, but had to withdraw it after a scandal.
But that was just one aspect of this elaborate New Age event, which began Thursday with a meet and greet at Hotel 1904 in the Norwegian coastal town of Alesund. The couple wore bespoke bubblegum-pink outfits by brand Märtha Louise Hest. The princess wore a heart-shaped buckle to symbolize, she said, “that love conquers all.”
On Friday, guests were transported by boat to the four-star Hotel Union in the village of Geiranger (UNESCO World Heritage Site), with views of waterfalls and mountains. This was followed by a glamorous Latin American themed cocktail party with salsa dancing. The wedding ceremony takes place around 1pm on Saturday, followed by afternoon tea followed by a grand dinner and party (with the bar open until 3am). Finally, there’s a post-wedding brunch on Sunday, featuring performances by Stevie Wonder and the Black Eyed Peas.
There are seven brides and seven groomsmen at the wedding party – probably including Märtha Louise’s daughters, Maud Angelica, 21, Leah Isadora, 19, and Emma Tallulah, 15. Parish priest Margit Lovise Holte officiating, and Reverend Michael Beckwith, a New Thought Minister whose LA church was attended by Oprah Winfrey and Meghan Markle’s mother, Doria Ragland, is also participating.
Instead of the country’s national broadcaster and news agency covering the wedding, as is usual for royal occasions, she and Verrett have secured lucrative deals with Netflix (who are filming a documentary about them) and Hello! magazine. Guests must adhere to a ban on social media – although Märtha Louise is already teasing details on her own Instagram.
The Norwegian Royal House’s head of communications, Guri Varpe, has confirmed that the rest of the royal family (including Märtha Louise’s parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, and her brother Crown Prince Haakon, will all stay on board the Royal Yacht) avoid photographing or filming, as this would lead to Netflix and Hello! unfair access.
But perhaps that decision reflects their serious reservations about this marriage. Although Märtha tells Louise The Telegraph that her parents are “very much in love with Durek,” she admits that this union is “very, very out of the box.”
Other signs that this won’t be, as Verrett put it, “just some ordinary wedding,” include the dress code for the pre-wedding party, which – in a departure from royal protocol – is “sexy and cool”. For the ceremony itself, women are asked to wear long ball gowns but avoid white, black, pink and gold, while men are encouraged to think “Oscar red carpet”.
The 350-strong guest list includes celebrities and social media influencers, such as American reality star Cynthia Bailey and body-positive model Margie Plus. Oscar winner and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow may also be in attendance: she called Verrett her “soul brother” and he and Märtha Louise vacationed with the actor in the Hamptons in 2019.
One notable exception is 27-year-old Marius Borg Høiby, Princess Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship, who was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of physically assaulting a woman and damaging her apartment. He admitted that he was “in the grip of alcohol and cocaine.”
Sweden’s Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Carl Philip are confirmed to be attending the wedding, along with Prince Constantijn and Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, but many others are clearly steering clear. Isaksen said foreign royal houses “don’t want to be part of this circus”.
But with such a handsome couple now at the heart of the establishment, this lavish wedding is only the beginning of a dangerous high-wire act for the Norwegian royal family. A recent poll shows that 36 percent of the public have a more negative view of them in the past year. The kook and the shaman could reduce a stately institution to a clown car.
