Maud Angelica from Norway breaks down in tears as she talks about her father’s suicide

Author: Alice Wade

16:00 May 31, 2024, updated 16:01 May 31, 2024

The daughter of Norwegian Princess Martha Louise broke down in tears as she spoke about the suicide of her father Ari Behn almost five years ago.

Maud Angelica Behn (21) appeared as a guest on her mother’s HeartSmart Conversations podcast, where she spoke about her grief over her father’s suicide on Christmas Day 2019.

She burst into tears, saying she “loves him so much she can’t show him.”

Maud was just 16 when her father, an author, took his own life. A week after his death, she gave a rousing speech about mental health support at his funeral, during which a Norwegian magazine awarded her the “bravest woman in Norway” award. To this day, she claims that people still stop her on the street and thank her for her speech.

In a speech four and a half years later, Maud told her mother and podcast co-hosts, Mari Manzetti and Lilla Bendriss, how death affects her to this day.

After her father’s death, Maud’s mother, Martha Louise, found love again in controversial American shamanic healer Durek Verrett – and eventually stepped down as a member of the royal family due to criticism leveled at her lover for his controversial views on modern medicine.

On the podcast, Maud said: “My dad committed suicide on Christmas Day and because he was an author there was a public funeral and I really wanted to give the speech.”

“A week passed between the time I heard the news and the funeral, so I had to write the speech during that time, in the worst of my mental state.

“At this point I felt like I was more nervous about doing school projects than about the funeral because I felt like my need to do it was stronger than my fear.

“I knew if I didn’t give the speech I would regret it for the rest of my life because I really wanted to have that moment to say goodbye to my dad.”

Maud stated that she was inspired by the tragedy of her father’s death to give a speech that she hoped would help others who are either struggling with their own suicidal thoughts or have lost someone to suicide.

“I also appreciated that my mom was able to be right next to me during the speech because it’s hard not to cry when you’re giving a speech like that and she was able to be right next to me.”

In an uplifting moment, Maud revealed how grateful she was that her mother was there to help her through her grief.

She then thanked all her loved ones for their support. “I love crying!” she added, praising his release power.

After her father’s death, Maud explained that she began making origami birds to help her grieve and called it a “meditative experience”.

In her time of sadness, she remembered hearing a sentence that resonated with her experience. “Grief is love without a place to go.”

“My dad’s death has many painful things, but one of the most painful was that I loved him so much that I couldn’t show it to him,” she said, before breaking down in tears.

“Sometimes I really think about heaven and that he is watching over me, and sometimes I feel him on the other side, but other times it is painful that he is not here physically.”

During the conversation, she was comforted by her mother, Märtha Louise, who considers herself a deeply spiritual and even “clairvoyant” person. Her mother told her an uplifting anecdote in which she saw her deceased ex-husband as he was finally resting.

After her father’s death, Maud’s upset eventually turned to anger. She realized how devastated she was that she wouldn’t be able to give any of the birds to her deceased father.

Nevertheless, she never stopped making birds and eventually left them all over the school. Many of them were picked up and taken home by her classmates and other residents as a sign of sympathy.

“It was really healing for me because I was able to take something painful and turn it into art into something beautiful that I could use to create.”

Since the death of her father, the 21-year-old has continued to express herself through creative ways and is now experimenting with her own image.

She shaved her head last year and recently dyed her hair green. Maud described treating herself as a work of art that she likes to dress up for her own image.

Maud now honors her father in many ways, including using his old typewriters and listening to jazz, his favorite type of music that he was unable to get into during his lifetime.

Behn was best known for his marriage to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway, Maud’s mother, but at the time their marriage was shrouded in criticism. Behn was deemed an inappropriate fit for the former princess because he is a self-proclaimed Czech writer and artist.

They married in a lavish ceremony at Trondheim’s historic Nidaros Cathedral in 2002, but decided to elope to London ten years later after constant scrutiny of their married life.

After the wedding, the couple had three children: Maud Angelica (21), Leah Isadora (19) and Emma Tallulah. Princess Märtha Louise of Norway is the only daughter of King Harald V of Norway and Queen Sonja. He has a brother, Crown Prince Haakon.

However, Martha-Louise and Ari began divorce proceedings in 2016 because, as Princess Martha stated, they had “grown apart” and were “no longer seeing each other like they used to.”

At one point she said: “We have tried everything for a long time, and since we still can’t meet where we did before, we can’t continue,” she said, reporting in English on Norwegian news.

Last year, in an interview for the BBC, Marta talked about her first husband and the “criticism” he encountered.

She said: “His mental health depended largely on media criticism.

– But I’m not saying it was anyone’s fault. This is how you always react to criticism. After his death, the press became self-critical, claiming that they had perhaps been a little harsh on him, that he had only faced criticism, and that he was actually a very nice person.

After the divorce, Behn wrote the book Inferno, which critics described as “filled with despair and sadness” and described his mental health struggles, headaches, hallucinations and breathing difficulties.

Since the death of her husband, Princess Märtha Louise has been engaged to Durk Verrett, an American businessman and friend of Gwyneth Paltrow.

The relationship marked another controversial chapter in the life of the Norwegian royal family, as Verrett’s controversial opinions came into the spotlight when their romance came to light.

Eyebrows were raised when the princess first started dating Verrett, who has some controversial and pseudoscientific views, including the idea that childhood cancer can be caused by “being unhappy.”

In November 2022, Princess Martha announced that she would step down as a senior member of the royal family in a move known as the “Norwegian Megxit”.

Last year, in an interview with the BBC, she praised her parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, for maintaining an open dialogue during decision-making and working out the details of how the arrangements would work.

When asked about her decision compared to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who also stepped down as senior members of the royal family, she spoke about her “incredible” family, including King Harald and Queen Sonia, and how dialogue between them has always remained open .

If you are struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts, you can contact Samaritans online or call the 24-hour hotline 116 123