Catherine, Crown Princess of Norway

Full name
	Catherine Charlotte Natalie Victoria Lauren Charles Frederick

Catherine
Catherine
Princess Royal; Crown Princess of Norway
Born	Catherine Charlotte Natalie Victoria Lauren Charles Frederick; 28 January 1969 (age 55); Buckingham Palace, London
Spouse	Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway (m. 1996)
Issue; Detail	Prince Olav;
Full name
Full name
	Catherine Charlotte Natalie Victoria Lauren Charles Frederick
House	Hanover
Father	Charles III
Mother	Lauren Bacall
Religion	Protestant

Catherine, Crown Princess of Norway (Catherine Charlotte Natalie Victoria Lauren Charles Frederick; born 28 January 1969) is the Crown Princess of Norway by marriage to Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway and a member of the British royal family. She is also a noted Norwegian Olympic swimmer, having chosen to represent the country following her marriage.

A dedicated animal conservationist, Catherine has been consistently involved in various wildlife projects in both Norway and various other countries around the world. The Kronprinsesse Catherine nasjonalpark (English: Crown Princess Catherine National Park) in northern Norway is named after her.

Early Life

Catherine was born on the January 28th 1969 as the eldest daughter of King Charles III and Lauren Bacall. Named Catherine after one of her parents' close friends, the American actress, Katharine Hepburn, she was subsequently named after her third-great grandmother, Queen Charlotte, her maternal and paternal grandmother, Natalie Bacall and Queen Louise, and lastly after her own mother and father.

In contrast to her predecessors, Catherine and her siblings' respective upbringings were completely void of any royal nannies, as Queen Lauren herself had insisted on personally raising her children. Nevertheless, amidst some intiial hardships, Catherine and her younger sister, Princess Alexandra in particular, were quick to became generally close with their mother. While she mostly enjoyed warm relations with her brothers, she reportedly exhibited a certain degree of rivalry towards her younger sister in an unofficial competition for their mother's affection. Regardless, both the two princesses shared common interests which included the likes of swimming, football and horse riding. At the age of six, Catherine was made Princess Royal by her father, succeeding her grand-aunt, the Duchess of Uppland whom had been the previous holder of the title until her death the year prior.

Since Catherine was only a year apart from her younger sister, the two enrolled together at the Brentford School for Girls and were said to had performed "exceptionally well" in their studies, with Catherine herself possessing a sizable degree of advantage in Physical Education.

Princess Royal

As her younger sister chose to pursue a military career in the Royal Navy upon graduating from secondary school, Catherine instead chose to continue her studies further, by consequently enrolling at the prestigious Cambridge University, where she then earned a bachelor's degree in Environmental Science.

Made a Counsellor of state by her father at the age of twenty one upon finishing her studies, Catherine began to mandatorily undertake a series of duties, ranging from royal functions such as attending public events to representing her country abroad through various international visits. Thus, on December 1991, she undertook her first task as a state counsellor by holding an official visit to the newly created Russian Federation, which had then recently emerged out of a dissolved Soviet Union, during which she met the inaugural President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin.

Princess Royal's Eight-Nation Asia Tour

In the following months of January to March, Catherine conducted a series of state visits, then known as the Princess Royal's Eight-Nation Asia Tour, during which she successively visited the countries of China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and Singapore. All the eight successive trips conducted by the Princess Royal were equally subject to mass media coverage, with Catherine's own general openness with the public and her "warm and lovely" attitude being unanimously praised by various international observers.

Despite the overwhelmingly warm, positive nature associated with her respective visits, she notably faced only one assassination attempt, which occurred during her visit to the Philippines, when a random, disaffected Filipino citizen allegedly attempted to stab the princess as she was being escorted through the passageway of Manila International Airport in the capital city of Manila. While the assassination attempt itself was quickly foiled by armed security guards, the princess nevertheless persisted in her subsequent touring of the country amid heightened security fears for the British royal. During the visit, she notably praised then President Corazon Aquino for "restoring normalcy and tranquility to a nation scarred with unrest and corruption", with the latter part of the statement receiving much particular criticism from supporters and family members of the already deceased, and notorious former President, Ferdinand Marcos, for which the princess was criticised for supposedly breaching her traditionally mandated neutral stance in public.

Crown Princess of Norway

As Crown Princess of Norway, Catherine began undertaking public ceremonial functions, among others either personally or alongside her husband, the Crown Prince. Almost instantly, the British-born Crown Princess was seen as a major unifying figure between the British and Norwegian countries, while relations between the two countries have been traditionally, and mutually warm. Additionally, she also became a frequent host, or at times, the honorary attendant of most bi-national meetings or dialogues involving the two countries. On November 26th 1969, she was popularly nicknamed "Queen Maud II" by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company in honour of the late Queen Maud's posthumous 130th birthday, with similarities between the two, most crucially regarding their shared British-Norwegian identity, being popularly compared.

Having inherited her prior interest in wildlife rehabilitation, she continued to further her interest in said cause by subsequently indulging herself on an active scale in wildlife organisations throughout Norway. In addition to her largely-praised commitment to the widlife cause, she was at times seen taking a personal "hands-on" approach instead, such as being directly involved in rehabilitation activities throughout the forested areas, rescuing endangered or injured wildlife species and alike. A few months into her efforts, Catherine announced that she was taking up flying lessons as to better her efforts in the wildlife community. She subsequently acquired a personally-owned Bell 412 helicopter, which was used regularly by the Crown Princess in monitoring wildlife habitats.

At the same time, the Crown Princess began furthering her interest in professional sports, exemplified by her previous record during her high school years. Until the year 2000, she actively competed in several local swimming competitions, to which she generally scored promising success. Eventually, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she scored a silver medal for the Norwegian Olympics team as the sole swimmer in a 50m freestyle race.

Marriage

As a consequence of her feminine charms and beauty, Catherine was greatly sought after as an eligible suitor from both the upper nobility and royalty, and even from those with a common background, which was greatly encouraged by both of her parents, seeking a further diversification of the royal household.

On August 1991, Catherine publicly revealed her relationship with Thomas Colling, a local businessman who had been a collegemate with the princess from her time in Cambridge University. Amidst a relatively stable relationship and a sizable degree of media coverage in their relationship, the pair peacefully broke off two years later.

Sometime in February 1994, Catherine met a twenty one year old Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway during a solo state visit to the latter's country. Despite their brief exchanges, rumours of a relationship were quickly fronted by both the Norwegian and British medias. A year later, having served as the respective bridesmaid and best man for their siblings' marriage, the pair followed up with an official engagement in September of the same year. The couple were married the next year, in which Catherine was subsequently confirmed as Crown Princess of Norway on the day of marriage. The couple then received their only child, Olav two years later.