Shaman to the stars Durek Verrett and his fiancée, Princess Märtha Louise of Norway, have been dating for a long, time – 5,000 years, to be precise. While in this lifetime they were only introduced in 2019, bonding over a shared passion for all things spiritual, Durek and Märtha Louise claim to have been joined in holy matrimony since his stint as a Pharaoh in ancient . In their current physical manifestation, the couple are set to tie the knot next month, and although even ’s perspicacious gaze can’t quite see back to the time of sphinxes and sarcophagi, we’ve got the inside on how this bisexual shaman won the heart of Norway’s ‘clairvoyant’ princess – from the Great Pyramids to Gwyneth Paltrow.
Durek first felt his connection to the spirit realm as a five year old, growing up in late 70s Sacramento. It was during a routine trip to the dentist that the one-day royal his shamanic powers. His mother, Veruschka, turned around and noticed her young son was missing.
No, not transported to a past life in Mesopotamia, but off hugging an elderly woman on a bench, overwhelmed with empathy for her apparent pain and suffering. In another interview, he said he was as young as two when he learnt what it meant to be imbued with such intergenerational gifts. As Veruschka played drums and explained the undisclosed ‘mysteries of plants’, Durek fell into a trance and met with his ancestors, including his great grandmother, a fellow shaman, who introduced herself as ‘mammal’.
In later life, while conducting shamanic practices with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow and Nina Dobrev, Durek says he calls upon relatives who have died for guidance during healing sessions – including, it seems, his aunt Shirley, who for her part was a pretty successful mezzo-soprano. And while many a royal husband-to-be has cut their teeth at Gordonstoun or Eton, Durek Verrett graduated from ‘the school of loving everyone’, which at the time of writing hasn’t made it into the pages of the Tatler School Guide. It sounds like he had his life planned out without the need of an upper crust education: as a teenager, his mother predicted that a Norwegian princess would seek out the young shaman and find her way to his heart.
Handy! As for the precise nature of his upbringing, that’s currently the matter of an ongoing legal battle. Durek has told that he lived in the lap of luxury, enjoying private planes and home help, but a bombshell interview with his mother for claimed that the family were not quite as wealthy as he claimed. The royal couple have denied Verushcka’s allegations of relative poverty, accused the publication of ‘ ’, and sent a cease and desist letter.
Princess Märtha Louise has recently shared a photo of what she says was Durek’s £3 million childhood mansion in California alongside a statement from a supposed schoolmate of her fiancé, which claimed that ‘many kids were jealous of his family's wealth as it seems like he had it all when it came to material items.’ Regardless of net worth, Durek certainly has an eventful history. Arrested in 1993 and apparently resurrecting himself from the dead thanks to ‘visits from powerful beings’ during a month-long coma, the shaman has been honing his craft since he was a young boy.
And, it seems, the practice has paid off. Earning a as a ‘bridge between the spiritual and physical plane,’ Durek’s shamanic practice has endorsements from Gwyneth Paltrow’s wellness empire Goop (the Oscar-winner considers him a ‘soul brother’), and a one-to-one session bags him anywhere from £320 to £800 (operatic aunt may not be included). A quick check of his official website will not only offer up classes in ‘talking to spirits’ and ‘increasing your psychic abilities’, but leaving you asking questions like: ‘Am I surrounded by energy vampires?’ and ‘Is my energy being pulled from me?’ One on his YouTube channel is simply titled: ‘Woke Wednesdays – the toad’.
Yes, there is merch. Among his clients? Princess Märtha Louise of Norway. Sources told that ‘falling in love with a client was the last thing on Shaman Durek's mind,’ but, hey, when your mother predicts your marriage into the Norwegian royal family and suddenly a Scandi princess is asking seeking the answers to your batrachian spiritual mysteries, sometimes you’ve got let serendipity do its thing.
Boy meets girl meets Pharaoh. The couple spent the early days of their relationship promoting one of Verrett’s spiritual guidance tomes, . Speaking to at the LA event launch event (which was attended by Bonnie Wright and Gerard Butler), Princess Märtha Louise was effusive with praise for her new beau’s book: ‘I find that every page there's something new to ponder upon, like a surprise or an in-depth new door opening.
I see how it can inspire us to open up to our own powers.' As for the Princess’s own powers? Märtha Louise is a self-proclaimed clairvoyant, with the capacity to communicate with angels and . In the introduction to her book , co-written with Elisabeth Nordeng, the Princess reassured readers that ‘there are an infinite number of angels all around us who want to help us in all circumstances and at all times.
’ The somewhat claustrophobic hospitality of the heavenly host was first revealed to the daughter of King Harald and Queen Sonja when she ‘dealt with horses’. Good to know some royal interests transcend celestial assistance. It hasn’t all been easy going for this most idiosyncratic of couples.
When the Princess first announced that she was dating ‘Shaman Durek’ in 2019, she preempted the backlash with social media post, writing: 'He has made me realize that unconditional love actually exists here on this planet...
And to those of you who feel the need to criticize: Hold your horses. It is not up to you to choose for me or to judge me. I don’t choose my man to satisfy any of you or the norms or boxes you have chosen in your mind for me to be in.
' Shortly after their engagement in 2022, the alleged reincarnated Pharaoh Verrett was dropped by his publishers regarding concerns over pseudoscientific claims in . The cited suggestions in his book that cancer was a choice, as well as a ‘Spirit Optimiser’ medallion he was selling on his website, which he claimed helped him overcome Covid-19. ‘Due to the nature of the product,’ reads the product’s online description, ‘all sales are final.
’ This was followed in 2022 by Princess Märtha Louise stepping down from royal duties, a process she described as full of ‘turmoil’, due to a lack of public acceptance regarding her alternative beliefs. ‘There’s been so much turmoil with me, you know, taking a different path than being a traditional royal,’ the Princess told . ‘There’s been a lot of criticism through the years, especially with me being spiritual, and in Norway that’s taboo.
’ She added, referencing the controversial beliefs of her partner, that ‘the Norwegian people I guess...
have decided it's best for me to step down because of his views about things.’ However, unlike with the stepping back of another royal ‘spare’, Princess Märtha Louise’s decision did not impact her relationship with her family. ‘What has been amazing through this whole cycle has been the conversations we've all had through it all,’ she told the outlet.
In reference to her parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja, she said: ‘From a very young age I remember my mum and dad saying we have to stick together, we have to talk things through even if it’s hard, we have to put all the cards on the table because we are family and we have to work things through all the turmoil.’ By all means, this new era in the life of the Norwegian Princess appears to be a joyful one, and it comes after a tragic few years for her young family. The princess has three daughters, Maud Angelica, 18, Leah Isadora, 16, and Emma Tallulah, 13, from a previous marriage to the late writer Ari Behn.
Princess Märtha Louise and Behn divorced in 2017, and he took his own life at Christmas two years later. And as Durek and Märtha Louise’s big day fast approaches, it is set to be far from the traditional image of a royal wedding – though the shaman sought (and received) the blessing of King Harald and Queen Sonja. The four-day August celebration on the banks of a UNESCO-listed fjord, the event will encapsulate the couple’s bohemian vibes with a meet-and-greet party (dress code: ‘sexy and cool’), a three-hour boat trip around the Norwegian coastline, and evenings of dinner and dancing.
The monogram – which is ‘unofficial’ since Märtha Louise relinquished her titles and patronages in a - step-back from royal life – is a combination of their initials, styled, naturally, in the manner of Egyptian hieroglyphs. On , Princess Märtha Louise – who is fourth in line to the throne of Norway, which will be inherited by her younger brother, HRH Crown Prince Haakon, 49 due to male-preference primogeniture – further explained the hieroglyphs behind their marital monogram. The ‘M’, for Märtha, apparently symbolises ‘The wise owl, a guardian of souls navigating between worlds.
’ She continued: ‘The owl represents the protector, guiding humans through the passage from the earthly existence to the spirit world.’ As for the ‘D’ for Durek, Märtha Louise wrote that the hieroglyph ‘manifests as the hand – a symbol of actions performed with grace, opening doors and dancing through life.’ No doubt the wedding day will be one for the history books – they’ve had most of human history to rehearse, after all.
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