Ari Behn, the author and self-styled Bohemian husband of Norway’s Princess Martha Louise, has been making headlines again after telling a local magazine that he’s unhappy, chronically depressed, starts drinking in the early afternoon and expects to be thrown out of his home.
Behn is due to release a new book next week, which he has described as a political novel about marrying into a European royal family. He also has written a play that’s due to be performed by a theater in western Norway (Rogaland Teater) perhaps by the end of next year.
But it’s his interview in Massiv , a magazine distributed free of charge in Oslo, that’s caught the most attention. It hints at trouble with his marriage and has set off criticism from some Norwegians who didn’t think he should have subjected Princess Martha Louise to such publicity.
Officials at the Royal Palace haven’t commented on his comments, which include the following:
*** “In general I’m chronically depressed and it’s getting worse.”
*** “I don’t like staying in the same place too long. Sooner or later I’ll be kicked out of the house. It’s apparently much worse for them (his wife and children) to have me hanging around the house.”
*** “What I fear the most is that I won’t manage to complete the project I began together with my wife, to raise three wonderful daughters to be independent, wise individuals with critical empathy and a sense of reality that will take them far beyond Akersgata (the street where Norway’s main newspaper used to be located.) “*** “I just work harder until lunch, and I can take the day’s first drink around 1:30pm … that’s happening more often, unfortunately. It’s a bad habit I’ve picked up.”
*** When asked whether he’s happy, he said: “No. My wife and girls are the finest in the world, but as a husband I’m difficult. Unfortunately. I’m terrible with practical things and it irritates everyone. Also myself.”
Behn described himself as “more and more lonely” and “pathologically obstinate.” He said he steadily gets himself into trouble and often “lands in compromising situations, idiotic quarrels and I’m almost impossible to live with.”
Behn’s mother has also released a book this fall, about stars and crystals, while his wife is launching series of books about communicating with angels. She and a partner started what’s widely been dubbed their “angel school,” which teaches people how they can get in touch with their own angels.
