She was christened in the Palace Chapel on 27 June 1930 and her godparents were: her paternal grandparents, The King and Queen of Norway; her maternal grandparents, The Duke and Duchess of Västergötland; her great uncle, The King of Sweden; her great aunt, Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom; her maternal aunt, Princess Axel of Denmark; and The Duke of York.

In 1940, during World War II, she and her family fled the German invasion of Norway,[2] and she spent the wartime years in exile with her mother and siblings in Bethesda, Maryland,[9] located northwest of Washington, D.C. Before the birth of her younger brother, it was assumed she would accede to the throne in the absence of a male heir, although this would have required a constitutional amendment, as women could not inherit the throne at the time.

The couple had three children: Princess Ragnhild opened the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, as her father and grandfather were attending the funeral of King George VI.

Although a private person, in 1995 Ragnhild decided to write her autobiography (this was penned with the help of author Lars O. Gulbrandsen) published under the title, “Mitt liv som kongsdatter” [My Life as a King’s Daughter].

Princess Ragnhild died of lung cancer at her home in Rio de Janeiro on 16 September 2012,[15] aged 82.

[3] Her body arrived in Oslo on 24 September 2012, where her brother King Harald V and her sister Princess Astrid were present to greet her alongside her spouse Erling and their children.

Through her maternal grandmother, Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, she was also a second cousin of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Anne Marie of Greece as well as a second cousin once removed of King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden through her maternal grandfather Prince Carl of Sweden.