Crown Prince to Wed Single Mother

Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon said he will marry his girlfriend, Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby, a single mother who has a son from a former relationship. “We have decided that we will get married on Aug. 25, 2001,” Haakon, 27, with his fiancee, also 27, beside him, announced in Oslo. Their romance has been controversial: The prince irked conservatives and some bishops in the state Protestant Church in September with his decision to live with Tjessem Hoiby. Critics said Haakon, who will be head of the church as king, should not “live in sin.”