Norway’s scandal-hit royals
The upcoming trial of the son of Norway’s crown princess has rocked the already beleaguered royal family.
Marius Borg Høiby, stepson of the Crown Prince (and future king) Haakon, is facing charges including the alleged rape of four women, abuse of two women, and threat to kill a man. His lawyer says Høiby “denies all charges of sexual abuse, as well as the majority of the charges regarding violence”. If convicted, the 29-year-old faces up to 10 years in prison.
The trial, much of which will be open to the public, begins in Oslo on Tuesday. The “extraordinary” case adds to the “already considerable woes of the Norwegian royal house”, said The Sunday Times.
‘Horrific’ attack
Crown Princess Mette-Marit, a single mother from a non-aristocratic background, married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001. Her son Høiby, whose father was in prison for drug offences at the time of his birth, was four when his mother married the heir to the throne. Høiby was raised as part of the royal family but without any claim to the throne.
In August 2024, police were called to a flat in an “upmarket district of western Oslo” over a case of suspected domestic violence. They found “a knife embedded in the wall and the chandelier shattered into fragments”. The victim said she had been hit, pinned to the bed and “repeatedly choked so that she could not breathe”, according to prosecutors.
“The ferocity of the attack, thought to have been the culmination of months of abuse, made it especially horrific,” said The Sunday Times. “But it shocked Norwegians for another reason” – the alleged perpetrator was Høiby; the victim his then girlfriend.
In a statement, he said he had acted “under the influence of alcohol and cocaine after an argument”, having suffered from "mental troubles” and been struggling “for a long time with substance abuse”.
Another ex-girlfriend claimed that she had also been abused “physically and psychologically” – claims “echoed by Høiby’s next partner”. “Even more serious” revelations followed Høiby’s second arrest in September that year, and third in November.
Høiby was charged last August with 32 offences; this week, the public prosecutor’s office added six more. The “most serious” of the new charges occurred in 2020, said Vanity Fair. Høiby is “said to have received and transported at least 3.5kg of marijuana” to a location an hour and a half away by car. Høiby, “once seen as a symbol of the openness of the monarchy, has acknowledged those allegations as true”.
Tarnished reputation
The case is just “one of the challenges” facing Norway’s royals. Harald V, who has been king since 1991, is 88 and “in delicate health”. Last month, the royal palace announced that Mette-Marit will probably need a lung transplant after “years of chronic illness” that forced her to withdraw from royal duties.
And just weeks after Høiby’s first arrest, the king’s eldest daughter, Princess Märtha Louise – whose “money-making antics have been a constant source of embarrassment” – married Durek Verrett, “an American conspiracy theorist and self-professed shaman”, said The Sunday Times.
Last year, a Netflix documentary about the couple “premiered to immediate controversy in Norway”, said Royal Central. The royal family was “rocked by the revelations” in “Rebel Royals: an Unlikely Love Story”, which, among other things, “established that the couple had broken their agreement with the royal family to not use their titles in connection with business ventures”.
Membership of the republican association Norge som republikk has “more than tripled in the last two years”, according to its leader Craig Aaen-Stockdale, said The Guardian. The royal family “has traditionally seen high levels of support”, he said. They were “viewed as a relatively harmless bunch”. But many Norwegians “are now reconsidering their position”. The “ongoing omniscandal” has “really tarnished the reputation of the younger royals”.