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(NewsNation) — The Norwegian royal family will be clutching their pearls tightly this weekend as Princess Martha Lousie, King Harald’s only daughter, marries a shaman who has been labeled a fraud in Geiranger, a picturesque village on the shores of a fjord on Norway’s west coast.
Martha Louise is tying the knot with “American healer” Durek Verrett, whom she first met in 2018, and her family is aghast.
And not without good reason — Verrett has an interesting past that reveals a fluid relationship with the truth.
In a 2020 article for Vanity Fair, Verrett — who charges $1,000 for a spiritual cleanse — claimed he grew up wealthy and chauffeured by limousines… A claim his family denies (his mother is now disinvited to the wedding for publicly denying his claims).
According to the Daily Mail, “In 2002, Durek — who has previously spoken about being HIV positive — sensationally claims he died of renal failure and came back to life, cementing his path to being a shaman”.
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WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 10: (L-R) Shaman Durek and Princess Martha-Louise of Norway attend Derek Warburton’s Celebration of the Launch of his New PRIDE Makeup Collection Benefiting GLSEN on June 10, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Momodu Mansaray/Getty Images) -
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JULY 09: Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and Shaman Durek attend the ECOLUXE pre-ESPYs sports lounge on July 09, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for Debbie Durkin/ECOLUXE Pre-ESPY’s Sports Lounge) -
AS, NORWAY – SEPTEMBER 07: Princess Martha Louise of Norway opens the NABP Blind Dogs Centre on September 07, 2022 in As, Norway. (Photo by Per Ole Hagen/Getty Images)
Durek Verrett: Shaman’s claims
Other eyebrow-raising claims include:
- “He has been talking about removing bad spirits from children,” Ingeborg Senneset, a journalist for the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten told The Times of London.
- During the pandemic, Verrett was lambasted for selling a medallion that he alleged could ward off COVID-19.
- Durek’s website describes him as a “6th generation shaman” whose “teachings have impacted thousands,” including Gwyneth Paltrow, Nina Dobrev, Rosario Dawson and more.
- His former fiance was a male masseuse named Hank Greenberg. The couple were engaged from 2007 – 2013. According to the Daily Mail: “Things came to an end when Durek was arrested in 2015 for attacking him at their California home. Hank would later describe his former fiancé as ‘not a good man.’”
- Durek was dropped by his publisher shortly after the couple announced their engagement in June 2022 over pseudoscientific claims he made in his book “Spirit Hacking.”
- According to the New York Times: “Mr. Verrett dropped out of high school and spent his early adulthood trying to determine if he wanted to be a shaman, a dancer or a model.”
- He claims he died at the age of 27, telling the NYT: “I flatlined, I went to the other side, I got all the information on the other side, I came back.”
- He has had brushes with the law and served a year in prison for hosting an illegal party in 1991 and has also been arrested for avoiding bus fares, trespassing and theft of services (Daily Mail).
- He claims to have been mentored by his grandmother and Suzanna von Radic, princess of Croatia, in the shamanistic arts and was labeled a sham by the Icelandic site Vantru.
- He has clients sign waivers allowing him to touch their genitals (Vanity Fair)
But then again, Verrett’s future wife is just as interesting a character.
Martha Louise is “a self-proclaimed clairvoyant and alternative therapist, she once opened an ‘angel school’ that taught healing techniques as well as how to contact celestial beings,” according to Vogue.
We wish them well!
