Princess Martha Louise of Norway has shed light on her upcoming nuptials to Durek Verrett in August – including being wed by a ‘New Thought’ minister from Beverley Hills.
The former royal, 52, who describes herself as ‘spiritual’ and claims to be a clairvoyant, will wed Durek Verrett, who is bisexual and calls himself a ‘shaman’, at the Union Hotel in Geirangerfjord on August 31.
Their union has been controversial from the outset, as Martha Louise was forced to step down as a working royal in 2022 due to her partner’s controversial views, including that childhood cancer is caused by unhappiness.
The four-day celebration will see guests take a three-hour boat trip to the ceremony at UNESCO site Geirangerfjord, while a brunch the next day will allegedly see performances by the Black Eyed Peas and Stevie Wonder.
Now Princess Martha and Durek have announced that they will have both a reverend and a spiritual guru leading the ceremony.
Princess Martha Louise of Norway and her fiancé Durek Verrett (right) will be joined by New Thought minister Michael Beckwith (left) from Beverley Hills at their wedding ceremony
Princess Martha and Durek have announced that they will have both a reverend and a spiritual guru leading the ceremony
The former royal, 52 will wed Durek Verrett, who is bisexual and calls himself a ‘shaman’, on August 31 (pictured together)
Martha Louise wrote on Instagram: ‘We are so happy to announce that parish priest Margit Lovise Holte will ordain Durek and me in Geiranger on the 31st. august after the Norwegian church’s ordination liturgy.
‘Pastor Michael Beckwith will also participate in the wedding ceremony with a greeting. This will be a big day that we are very much looking forward to.’
Beckwith is the founder and spiritual director of New Thought at the Agape International Spiritual Center in Beverly Hills.
The ‘mind healing’ New Thought movement originated in the US in the early 19th century and followers believe it is the successor of ancient thought, including the Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Egyptian, Hindu and Buddhist cultures.
It seems to fit well with the couple’s non-traditional views.
Though they are no longer royals, the couple released their own version of a monogram to celebrate their union, in the form of an insignia containing ‘important symbolism’.
In an Instagram post, they shared that the image, which contains their initials, ‘honours our past life together in Egypt’.
Details included the ‘Eye of Horus’, a symbol of ‘protection from evil’; Horses which ‘have been a central animal through both our lives’ and a diamond to ‘represent the portal between the physical and metaphysical realms’.
The couple have also created a custom gin together for their wedding – but this too proved controversial as it contained the word ‘Princess’ and use of her royal monogram on the back.
Princess Martha Louise stepped down as a working royal in 2022. Pictured ahead of a state banquet in November 2021
The couple also unveiled their shared insignia ‘honouring their past life together in ancient Egypt’
The princess went into great detail about the symbolism behind the monogram
As Martha stepped back as a working royal in 2022, she is no longer allowed to use her royal associations to sell products – and it meant the product was awkwardly, and swiftly, removed.
‘Unfortunately, there was a mistake, so the title has already been removed from the distillery’s website and in the next batch it will also be removed from the bottles,’ Carina Scheele Carlsen, the Princess’s representative said previously.
Guests will arrive on the Thursday for a ‘Meet and Greet’ party in the courtyard of the Hotel 1904 in the centre of Alesund.
They will then attend ‘pre-wedding’ on the eve of the ceremony, including cocktails and dinner at the Hotel Union.
A three-hour boat ride will take passengers to the actual wedding ceremony, which will conclude with a banquet and party at the Hotel Union.
On Sunday the newly-weds will host a three-hour brunch, which will reportedly see performances by the Black Eyed Peas and Stevie Wonder.
In 2022 the princess, who is the only daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja, took a Sussex-style step back from royal life over concerns about her American businessman partner.
Martha, herself a self-proclaimed clairvoyant who says she can talk to angels, revealed in 2022 that she would not represent the royal family.
The couple are set to tie the knot at Hotel Union in Geirangerfjord (pictured, file image) in Norway next month
In November 2022, an official statement issued by the Norweigan Royal Family read: ‘Princess Martha Louise wants to contribute to a clearer distinction between her own activities and the connection to the Royal Family.
‘The Princess has therefore, in consultation with His Majesty the King and the immediate family, decided that she will not be performing official duties for the Royal Family at this time.’
Eyebrows were raised when the Princess first began dating Verrett, who holds some controversial and pseudoscientific views, including that cancer in children can be caused by ‘being unhappy’.
In January, he was slammed for saying suicidal people and naughty children are ‘possessed by evil spirits’.
The US-born bisexual celebrity healer took to Instagram to share a video about the ‘suicide spirit’ in Shamanism.
Durek said: ‘In shamanism, we believe that there is a suicide spirit – a spirit that gets into your consciousness and plays off of your emotions from the burdens that you feel, that other people are going through by you living, by the things you feel that you cannot overcome, from the pain of any situation or anything that you’ve done that you cannot forgive yourself’.
The comments were particularly controversial given that Martha Louise’s first husband Ari Behn died by suicide.
In an interview with the BBC last year, Martha-Louise praised her parents, King Harald an Queen Sonja, for keeping the dialogue open while she made her decision and they worked out the details about how the arrangements would work.
The royal praised her parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, for always keeping channels of communication open and encouraging conversation, even in difficult times
When asked about her decision in comparison with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who also stepped down as senior royals, she spoke about her ‘amazing’ family, including King Harald and Queen Sonja, and how the dialogue between them has always remained open.
‘What I think has been amazing through this whole cycle has been the conversations we have had through it all,’ she said.
‘From a very young age I remember my mum and dad saying (the King and Queen saying) that we always have to stick together. We always have to talk things through even if it’s hard, we have to put all the cards on the table because we are family and we have to work things through.’
The Norwegian royal also discussed how her fiancé’s controversial ‘views’ had contributed to how the public viewed her position in the royal family.
She said: ‘The Norwegian people I guess… have decided it’s best for me to step down because of his views about things.’
Durek, who describes himself as a ‘Shaman’, was dropped by his publisher shortly after the couple announced their engagement in June 2022 over pseudoscientific claims he made in his book ‘Spirit Hacking’.
Among the claims were that children ‘can get cancer from being unhappy’.
The couple (pictured in June 2022) have had a tumultuous few years after the princess, who claims to be a clairvoyant, stepped down from royal duties over Verrett’s pseudoscientific views
Durek has also claimed he once came back from the dead, recovering from a month-long coma, by letting his soul ‘burn’ and he has also spoken of having to undergo a kidney transplant from his sister as a child.
It is unclear why he needed the kidney or how he became wheelchair bound, as he has described. The illness which sent him into a coma is also undisclosed.
Elsewhere in the interview, Martha Louise claimed she first began to experience psychic premonitions as a child.
She said: ‘When I was little I would see things in you. If you were sad or if you were happy… if you had a pain in your shoulder I would get a pain in my shoulder.
‘And I understood that that’s a talent and, you know, I could help other people. And that’s when the whole ball started rolling.’
The Princess said she decided she wanted to ‘earn my own money’ which she could only do by giving up her ‘money from the state’ and paying taxes for the first time in her life.
After giving up her position in the royal family, the Princess revealed she has had to deal with ‘lots of scrutiny’ – particularly when she takes on new roles.
‘Everything you do that’s a first, that goes out of the box that you’re put in,’ she said, adding that press scrutiny has ‘continued’.
She added that, in Norway, spiritual beliefs like the ones she holds are ‘taboo’.
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