In 1897 the family moved to Christiania, where her father was involved in the property trade for twenty years until he bought the farm in Åneby in Nittedal.

In 1909, she became the second wife of the noted author, Knut Hamsun, with whom she had four children, sons Tore and Arild and daughters Eleanor and Cecilia.

Hamsun's work has been translated to several other languages, including Swedish, German, English, Latvian, Finnish and Dutch.

She was a member of Vidkun Quisling's Nazi party Nasjonal Samling, and she frequently toured German cities reciting the works of Knut Hamsun during the early years of the war.

In 1947, she was sentenced to three years of hard labor for treason, but due to a general amnesty she was jailed for only 9 months.