Durek Verrett: The bisexual shaman who once said kids get cancer because they're sad marrying royalty
Norway's Princess Martha-Louise, 51, is reportedly engaged to US shaman Durek Verrett. Durek, 47, proposed to the Princess in June. The couple reportedly met in 2018. However, Verrett will be Princess' second husband.
Princess Martha Louise and Ari Behn married in 2002, and she split from him several years ago. Tragically, Behn died by suicide on Christmas Day 2019, aged 47. They have three children together -- Maud Angelica, 19, Leah Isadora, 17, and Emma Tallulah, 13.
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Who is Durek Verrett?
Verrett is a Los Angeles-based 'spiritual guide and gifted healer.' Notably, his celebrity following includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Nina Dobrev and James Van Der Beek. He is regularly seen on Hollywood shows.
Verrett, who was born in Sacramento in November 1974, claimed he first became "aware" of his shamanic abilities when he was five, according to the Daily Mail. However, he started training only after he was 11 years old. He was born to his father David, who was an engineer of African-Haitian descent, and his mother Veruschka, Indian-Norwegian. Verrett shares his passion for spirituality with the royal, who is a self-proclaimed clairvoyant who says she can talk to angels.
However, according to The Times, a recent poll revealed that 17 per cent of the public views the Norwegian monarchy more negatively than they did a year ago, with "Martha Louise’s relationship with Verrett, 47, cited by many as the reason."
Crown Prince Haakon, Martha's brother, recently said that some of the American's more controversial opinions had an impact. At present, there is a conversation around whether Martha should lose her princess title after neighboring monarch Queen Margrethe II of Denmark stripped the children of her second son, Prince Joachim, of theirs.
"We have of course noticed that some of what has been said and done has caused quite a bit of discussion. Some of it has also been controversial," Haakon said. Some of the things that have been said include Verrett saying children get cancer because they are unhappy. This comment prompted a book of his to be dropped by his publisher in Norway. Verrett has also said she once came back from the dead, recovering from a coma that lasted a month, by letting his soul "burn". He also spoke of undergoing a kidney transplant from his sister as a child. It is unclear why he needed a kidney or what made him wheelchair-bound. What illness sent him into a coma also remains unknown.
"When I woke up from a month long coma, I was told that I would never walk again and that I didn't have much more than a month to live. Seven different specialists told me there was no hope," Verrett said. "But I received visits from powerful beings who delivered me messages about how I had to set my mind in order to survive this."
Sources previously said Verrett and Martha are "madly in love" and that the royal was one of his clients. "Falling in love with a client was the last thing on Shaman Durek's mind. But their attraction for each other was inevitable," the source said. "They both believe they have known each other for many lifetimes, and that in this lifetime they are supposed to help heal the world together with their tribe, their followers."
The couple said they have received death threats because of their interracial relationship, with Martha saying she has been "really shocked" to see how "black people and people of color get treated". Verrett has said it is possible that some people in Norway "don’t want to see a black man in the royal family".