Oslo’s Mayor Anne Lindboe has called off her wedding ceremony because of the death of King Harald V of Norway.
The ceremony with her fiancé Pål Sandvid was slated for Friday but was postponed after the king died earlier that day, her adviser confirmed to the BBC.
"It’s hard to imagine an Oslo and a Norway without you. You didn’t need a crown to be king," Lindboe wrote in a tribute on Instagram.
Harald reigned for 35 years and passed away at the national hospital in Oslo, where he was being treated for a rare blood condition. His son, King Haakon VIII, took the throne that same Friday.
Lindboe added, "Even the majority of Norwegians who never met you in person still felt like they knew you," in her Instagram post.
No new date for the wedding has been announced yet, the mayor’s adviser said.
The couple had been engaged for five years, announcing their engagement in June this year.
The late king was a popular reforming leader who modernised the Norwegian monarchy, marrying a commoner and serving as a unifying figure during Norway’s most difficult moments. He passed away a day before his 58th wedding anniversary.
People have been gathering to lay flowers at a memorial outside the Royal Palace in Oslo, while Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre described the nation as “united in grief and gratitude”. The UK’s King Charles III also mourned his “dear cousin”.
