Queen Sonja of Norway

Born Sonja Haraldsen on 4 July 1937, she dated Crown Prince Harald for nine years under wraps - her status as a commoner made the relationship too controversial to surface. Harald finally forced the issue: he told King Olav V he'd remain single if consent was refused. They married in 1968, making her crown princess, and she became queen in 1991 when Harald took the throne - the first queen consort Norway had seen since Queen Maud died in 1938. She and Harald have two children, Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon. As queen she holds fifteen patronages, served as Vice President of the Norwegian Red Cross from 1987 to 1990, and in 2005 became the first queen to visit Antarctica. In 2017 she took the Trysil-Knut Prize, the first woman to receive it. A graphic artist and ceramicist, she founded the Queen Sonja International Music Competition and the Queen Sonja Print Award; her own works have shown in exhibitions across Norway and beyond.