Norway: Princess took secret India trip to care for gay palace employee’s newborn twins
Norway’s Crown Princess secretly travelled to India to care for infant twins born to her gay friend, and employee’s surrogate mother, after his travel visa was delayed.
The country’s future queen, Princess Mette-Marit, used a diplomatic passport to travel to India in late October, as that granted her immediate access, and did not alert Indian authorities of her arrival, reports Yahoo.
Princess Mette-Marit took such steps because her friend, who is employed by the palace, and his husband, were not able to travel to india to care for their newborn babies.
She spent several days caring for the twins at Manav Medicare Centre, the staff of which assumed she was a nanny. She did comment on her secret trip, saying:
“For me, this is about two babies lying alone in a New Delhi hospital,” she said in a statement. “I was able to travel and wanted to do what I could.”
During her absence, the princess’s name still appeared in the Norwegian palace calendar, and the fact that she did not attend a parliamentary dinner, was never explained.
Once a relative of the fathers was able to take over from Princess Mette-Marit, she returned to Norway, and the fathers of the child were granted their visa in November, which allowed them to bring the babies back home.
Norway was the second country ever to allow same-sex partnerships, back in 1993, and equal marriage has been legal since 2009.
Surrogacy, however, is a heavily debated issue in the country, and Norway’s government actively discourages citizens from paying surrogates to give birth for them.
The wife of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, did acknowledge the debate, but said she did not take the steps she did in order to make a statement on the issue.
“Sometimes life presents you with situations with few good solutions. This was one of those,” she said. “There is an important debate going on about surrogacy and this was not meant as taking a side.”
