These days, Prince Haakon and Princess Mette-Marit are known as something of a royal power couple, but the pair was not exactly destined to get together. In many ways, Haakon and Mette-Marit came from very different worlds — a fact that made them a somewhat unlikely pairing.
Indeed, Mette-Marit grew up in a middle-class family, far from the glitz and glam of palace living. Over the years, her parents struggled financially, as her father, Sven O. Høiby, often underwent unemployment. Although the princess did have food to eat and a roof over her head throughout her childhood, her family situation was far from stable. As Mette-Marit revealed in a small press conference in the village of Snåsa, her father struggled with addiction during her youth. "As a child, I always felt that I had something I had to hide because none of my friends knew my father was an alcoholic," the princess shared (via The Local).
In contrast to the struggles that characterized Mette-Marit's childhood, her future husband grew up in a world of luxury. As a born prince, Haakon was given the chance to travel the world and obtain an elite education. In fact, over the years, he studied at top-ranked institutions, such as the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Oslo, and the London School of Economics. Ultimately, these experiences gave Haakon a very privileged view of the world around him.
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