Princess Martha Louise of Norway has paid tribute to her ex-husband Ari Behn a year after his death.
Mr Behn, an author who shared three daughters – Maud Angelica, 17, Leah Isadora, 15, and Emma Tallulah, 12 – with his ex-wife Princess Martha Louise, 49, took his own life on Christmas Day last year.
Sharing a post of a festive tree ornament last night on Instagram, the royal said her family had marked ‘a very different’ Christmas, saying: ‘We celebrated his life today, we cried over his loss and how much we miss him. It has been a day of loving whatever is.’
The mother-of-three, who was married to Ari in 2002 and divorced in 2017, urged her followers to ‘ask for help’ if they were struggling, adding: ‘I reach out to all of you who are struggling through the Holidays. Know you are loved. Know you are needed. Know you are worth the help you can get.’
Princess Martha Louise of Norway paid tribute to her ex-husband Ari Behn a year after his death. Pictured, Martha Louise and Ari Behn at the wedding of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden in 2015
In an emotional post, Princess Martha said the family ‘cried over his loss and how much we miss him’ on Christmas Day
In the emotional post, Princess Martha wrote: ‘Just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas.
‘This year has been a very different Holiday season because Ari, the beloved father of my three girls, is no longer among us. He chose to leave this plane last year on this day. ‘
She continued: ‘LIFE hits us all. We can’t avoid it. We have to meet it.
‘Please ask for help. Please express how you are. You are loved.’
It comes weeks after Princess Martha’s daughter Maud Angelica, 17, paid tribute to her father in an interview.
Speaking about her family’s Christmas celebrating, Princess Martha said the family had spent the day ‘crying…over how much we missed him’ (pictured, Maud, then 16, Leah, than 14 and Emma, then 11 with Princess Martha Louise at the funeral of their father on January 3 2020)
She said he was a generous man and said she is still coming to terms with losing him, Voici reported.
Speaking to the magazine, Maud said her father was ‘someone who would stop in his tracks to chat with an acquaintance,’ and a man who was ‘genuinely interested in people’.
‘He was a generous man, who always had nice, poetic compliments to give to you,’ he was very good at that,’ she said.
Speaking of how she was processing her grief, the 17-year-old said: ‘I think it will always be a bit difficult. Of course, the pain will become less and less difficult to handle with time. But we never overcome grief. We eventually just accept it and decide to focus on life.’
Ari Behn with his three daughters at National Day celebrations in Oslo in May 2010
After the divorce Mr Behn wrote a book Inferno, which critics described as ‘oozing with despair and sadness’ and describes his struggles with mental health, headaches, hallucinations and difficulty breathing.
Promoting the literary work last year, he told Norwegian newspaper VG: ‘I am yesterday’s news, even though the world has not yet been told. I’m a clown, at worst. At best, I am a publicist and a public actor. For many I’m a fool.’
Princess Martha Louise has since started a relationship with her ‘twin flame’ shaman Durek Verrett, 44, based in Los Angeles, who she began dating after becoming his client.
Mr Durek, who is a close friend of Gwyneth Paltrow, claims to be a 6th generation shaman and be able to communicate between the ‘physical and spiritual planes’.
