Monday, March 4, 2013

Mette-Marit - and royal events

Crown Prince Frederik had a good reason to skip the annual get-to-gether of the European heirs and their spouses.  He was taking part in the annual Vasaloppet ski race in Sweden, which began early on Sunday morning,  but what about Crown Princess Mette-Marit?  Did she have an official engagement that could not be canceled for a quick trip to the Netherlands with her husband?

Although the Norwegian palace will not confirm it, Crown Princess Mette-Marit was spending her Saturday shopping ... in New York City.  She was spotted on a plane heading to the Big Apple - and while walking down the street in New York City, she was spotted by a woman who managed to have her photo take with the Crown Princess - and sent to Instagram.

New York City is a great place to shop.  Plenty of stores from Macy's (the world's largest department store) to a variety of boutiques.  It's about a nine hour flight from Oslo to JFK, a long haul for anyone, but especially for a Princess with a well-known aversion to flying. 

Perhaps the Crown Princess has conquered her fear of flying.  Nevertheless, it would have been easy to postpone the shopping trip  -- stores ALWAYS have sales in New York City -- to spend time with her husband and their fellow heirs and spouses.

Marianne Hagen, the head of the palace press office, told VG that the Crown Princess had a "private program" this past weekend, but would not confirm that she went to New York City.

This is not the first time that the Princess has bailed out on a royal event. According to a Norwegian news organization, VG, the Crown Princess did not accompany her husband to the baptism of Princess Estelle of Sweden, nor did she attend the 40th birthday parties for Princess Martha (her sister-in-law) and Princess Maxima.   Her husband went alone to these events as well.

3 comments:

John said...

hm. Shy? or, trouble in paradise back at Skaugum? I hope not, MM and H look like a nice couple.

emeraldcity said...

Wasn't there a story about her secretly being in India for a couple of weeks to look after the new born surrogate child of some friends when for some reason they couldn't go to India themselves? I think it was around the time of her sister-in-laws birthday party. That would explain at least one missed engagement but she does tend to march to a different drummer.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Martha Louise's 40th birthday was in September 2011. The India trip to pick up the baby for the gay couple was a few weeks ago. She was said to be "traveling" at the time of her sister in law's party.