Meet Princess Ingrid Alexandra, Norway’s Future Queen

Second in line to the Norwegian throne, Princess Ingrid Alexandra is expected to one day become Norway's first female monarch in more than 600 years. Here's the story of the country's future queen.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra has grown up knowing that one day she is likely to become Queen of Norway.

The 22-year-old is second in line to the Norwegian throne, behind her father, Crown Prince Haakon. Her grandfather, King Harald V, remains Norway's monarch.

But although her future role has been determined since birth, the Norwegian Royal Court has repeatedly stressed that education and life experience should come first.

Since turning 18 in 2022, Ingrid Alexandra has completed upper secondary school, served for 15 months in the Norwegian Armed Forces and begun university studies in Australia.

At the same time, she has gradually taken on more official duties on behalf of the Norwegian Royal Family.

Why Princess Ingrid Alexandra will become Queen

Ingrid Alexandra's place in the line of succession reflects an important change in Norwegian history.

Until 1990, male heirs took priority over their sisters. That year, the Norwegian parliament changed the constitution so that the eldest child would take precedence regardless of gender.

The change did not apply retrospectively to everyone already born, which is why Crown Prince Haakon remains ahead of his older sister, Princess Märtha Louise.

But Ingrid Alexandra was born after the change. As Crown Prince Haakon's eldest child, she is therefore ahead of her younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, in the line of succession.

Assuming the monarchy continues along its present line, Haakon will succeed Harald before Ingrid Alexandra eventually succeeds her father.

When that happens, she would become Norway's first reigning queen for more than six centuries.

The last woman to rule Norway in her own right was Queen Margaret, who ruled Denmark, Norway and later Sweden in the late 14th and early 15th centuries and played a central role in the creation of the Kalmar Union.

Her early life

Princess Ingrid Alexandra was born at Rikshospitalet University Hospital in Oslo on 21 January 2004.

She is the eldest child of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit and grew up at Skaugum, the Crown Prince family's official residence in Asker, just outside Oslo. Her younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus, was born in 2005.

The Princess was christened in the Palace Chapel on 17 April 2004. King Harald presented his granddaughter for baptism, while her godparents included several members of European royal families.

Among them were the future King Frederik X of Denmark, Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden and King Felipe VI of Spain, together with Princess Märtha Louise and Ingrid Alexandra's maternal grandmother.

Her parents have long tried to give their children elements of an ordinary upbringing despite their unusual circumstances.

Ingrid Alexandra began her education at Jansløkka elementary school, a state school in Asker. She later attended Oslo International School and Uranienborg School before beginning upper secondary education at Elvebakken in Oslo in 2020.

She graduated from Elvebakken in 2023.

Turning 18 and stepping into public life

Ingrid Alexandra's 18th birthday in January 2022 marked an important constitutional and personal milestone.

Shortly before the birthday, she visited Norway's three branches of government: the Storting, the Supreme Court and the Office of the Prime Minister.

The programme closely mirrored one undertaken by her father when he turned 18 in 1991 and was designed to introduce the future monarch to the institutions at the heart of Norway's constitutional system.

On her birthday, representatives from the Storting, government, Supreme Court, Sámi Parliament, diplomatic corps, Armed Forces and other Norwegian institutions visited the Royal Palace to congratulate her. She was also given her own office at the palace.

Yet becoming an adult did not mean becoming a full-time working royal. The Royal Court made clear that her education would remain the priority, with official engagements increasing gradually. That approach has continued in the years since.

Military service in Northern Norway

One of the biggest steps in Ingrid Alexandra's preparation for adult life came not at the Royal Palace, but at a military camp in Northern Norway.

She began recruit training at Skjold Camp in Troms in January 2024 before joining the Engineer Battalion of Brigade Nord.

Known during her service simply as Private Alexandra, she served alongside other conscripts and worked with the unit's CV90 armoured engineer vehicles. Her military service was eventually extended to 15 months. She completed her national service on 4 April 2025.

The experience also gave the Princess a direct connection with one of the constitutional responsibilities that would come with eventually becoming monarch.

The King is formally the commander-in-chief of the Norwegian Armed Forces, while military service and education have long formed part of the preparation of senior members of Norway's Royal House.

University life in Australia and Norway

After completing her military service, Ingrid Alexandra turned her attention to higher education.

In August 2025, she moved to Australia to begin a three-year degree at the University of Sydney, focusing on international relations and political economy.

The decision gave the future queen an opportunity to study and live far from the Norwegian Royal Palace.

For the autumn semester of 2026, however, Ingrid Alexandra is studying at the University of Oslo as an exchange student from Sydney. According to the Royal Court, her courses in Oslo include subjects within comparative politics and conflict resolution.

Her studies underline a pattern also seen in the education of Crown Prince Haakon, who studied political science at the University of California, Berkeley, before later completing postgraduate studies in London.

For now, the Royal Court continues to emphasise that Ingrid Alexandra's education remains her main priority.

An increasing number of royal duties

That does not mean royal life has been put entirely on hold.

In April 2025, Ingrid Alexandra took part in an official state visit programme for the first time when Icelandic President Halla Tómasdóttir visited Norway.

She also held her first audience at the Royal Palace that year, meeting representatives of Norway's Children's Climate Panel.

In January 2026, she made her first official visit to Finnmark, with a programme that included a visit to the Sámi Parliament.

These appearances are still relatively limited compared with the workload of King Harald, Queen Sonja and Crown Prince Haakon. But they provide a glimpse of how Ingrid Alexandra's public role is gradually developing alongside her education.

Her royal duties actually began much earlier.

In 2015, at the age of 11, she undertook her first independent official engagement by christening the Norwegian Society for Sea Rescue vessel Elias.

A year later, she lit the flame at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer, while in 2018 she christened the Norwegian research vessel Kronprins Haakon.

A royal with a love of the outdoors

Away from official duties, Ingrid Alexandra has long shared her family's enthusiasm for sport and outdoor life.

She is particularly associated with surfing, an interest shared by Crown Prince Haakon and other members of the family. In 2020, aged 16, she won the Norwegian junior national surfing championship at Borestranden in Jæren.

The Royal Court also lists skiing and water sports among her leisure interests.

Princess Ingrid Alexandra Sculpture Park

Visitors to Oslo can already find the Princess's name attached to a permanent attraction.

The Princess Ingrid Alexandra Sculpture Park occupies part of the Palace Park beside the Royal Palace. Opened in 2016, the park was created around a simple idea: sculptures for children, designed by children.

Schoolchildren from across Norway submitted ideas, with Ingrid Alexandra herself taking part in selecting the designs. New sculptures were added until 2019.

In 2018, the Princess even acted as a guide to the park when Prince William and Catherine, then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, visited Norway.

Norway's future queen

There is still no timetable for when Princess Ingrid Alexandra will become Norway's monarch.

Her father remains first in line to the throne, and at 22, Ingrid Alexandra is still at the beginning of what could be many decades of preparation. That seems to be very much the intention.

Rather than moving directly into full-time royal work at 18, she has been given time to finish school, serve in the military, study overseas and build experience outside the walls of the Royal Palace.

Royal engagements are becoming more frequent, but gradually. For someone whose eventual career was decided on the day she was born, that may be as close to choosing her own path as a future queen can get.