Ari Behn
1972–2019 · Danish and Norwegian writer and playwright
Ari Behn (Aarhus, 1972 - Lommedalen, 2019) was a Danish and Norwegian writer, known mainly for his literary work and for his marriage to Princess Märtha Louise of Norway, daughter of King Harald V. The sources consulted do not document any activity as a painter, so this biography focuses on his literary career.
Born Ari Mikael Bjørshol, he was the son of two teachers connected to the Waldorf School in Moss. In 1996 he took the surname Behn, of German origin, which was the maiden name of his maternal grandmother. He studied history and religion at the University of Oslo.
His first short story collection, Trist som faen (1999), brought him immediate success, with around 100,000 copies sold and good reviews. He later published two novels, which received less favourable reviews. In 2002 he wrote a book about his wedding together with his wife. The 2011 collection Talent for lykke was described by critics as a set of stories about the ambivalent talent of men desperate for luck. That same year he made his debut as a playwright with Treningstimen, staged at the Rogaland Theatre. His books were translated into Swedish, Danish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic and French.
He married Princess Märtha Louise in 2002, at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, and the couple had three daughters. The divorce was confirmed in 2016. After the separation he suffered a depression from which he recovered ten months later. In 2018 he published Inferno, in which he described his personal difficulties. He died on 25 December 2019; the Norwegian royal family announced his suicide. He was buried in Oslo.
His legacy is mainly literary: a small body of work, translated into several languages, that is best understood alongside his public and private life.