Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway's future queen, will go on trial for rape this week. Photo / Håkon Mosvold Larsen, NTB, AFP
The worst scandal to engulf Norway’s royal family began with a routine police call-out to an apartment in a wealthy district of Oslo.
Police arrived at the property in Frogner in the early hours of August 4, 2024, after neighbours complained about an argument between a young man and his girlfriend.
What police found inside would soon appear on the front page of a Norwegian tabloid magazine: a broken chandelier and a knife buried in a wall.
The suspect was none other than Marius Borg Høiby, the playboy son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, whose husband, Prince Haakon, will become Norway’s next king.
Høiby, 29, was arrested later that afternoon, as police investigated claims that he had choked an alleged female victim and threatened to set her clothes on fire.
The arrest was just the beginning of a complex investigation which, as more alleged victims came forward, would culminate in Høiby being charged with rape, assault, domestic abuse and drug transportation, among other offences.
He denies all of the most serious allegations and has vowed to give his own account of events in court.
On Tuesday, the son of the Crown Princess will stand trial in a courtroom in Oslo, answering to the 38 charges, which include four counts of rape. If found guilty, he faces a maximum prison sentence of 16 years.
“Høiby is absolutely taking the accusations very seriously, but doesn’t acknowledge any wrongdoing in most of the cases – especially the cases regarding sexual abuse and violence,” his lawyer, Petar Sekulic, has said.
A number of women are expected to provide evidence, but only one has been named by the prosecution, Nora Haukland, Høiby’s ex-girlfriend and a social media influencer.
After she publicly accused Høiby of kicking, punching and strangling her after his arrest, Norwegian courts refused her appeal for anonymity.
It is an extraordinary fall from grace for a young man raised in the most privileged of circumstances, and whose angelic appearance as a boy earned him the nickname “Little Marius”
“When it comes to the Norwegian royal family, it is without a doubt the biggest scandal,” said Trond Noren Isaksen, a historian and expert on the Norwegian monarchy.
“There have been controversies surrounding the choice of spouses, about renovations of the palace and these kinds of things, but never any real scandals involving criminal offences, let alone so many.”
While the case has caused significant turmoil in the royal family, Høiby is not an official member and has no royal titles, as he was born before his mother married Haakon.
Høiby, speaking via his lawyers, has denied the more serious charges of rape and physical abuse, and says he will deliver “his version of events” to Oslo’s district court. He has already confessed to some of the lesser, non-violent offences on his charge sheet, such as transporting 3.5kg of cannabis without financial compensation.
“The drug use and my diagnoses do not excuse what happened,” he has said, referring to his issues with drug usage and mental health. “I want to be responsible for what I have done, and will explain myself truthfully to the police.”
The most serious charges of rape relate to allegations that Høiby sexually assaulted four women while they were asleep and, in some cases, filmed their genitals without their knowledge.
His trial is scheduled to last for seven weeks, with a verdict likely to be delivered a few weeks after the final court hearing, in what is set to be one of the most tense moments in Norwegian legal history.
Born in 1997, Høiby was conceived by Mette-Marit before she became the Crown Princess, during a tryst with Morten Borg, an entrepreneur and fixture on the Oslo party scene.
At the age of 4, Høiby served as a page boy during Mette-Marit’s wedding to Haakon at Oslo Cathedral in 2001. Queen Sonja, the wife of King Harald V of Norway, is said to have remarked that he was the “world’s cutest little bright guy, who is so charming and wonderful”.
But as he grew older, the son of the Crown Princess became something of an outsider and playboy, cultivating a bad boy image.
Photographs of Høiby in his 20s show a confident, edgy young man with an earring, tattoos, and slicked-back blond hair. He is reported to have been a regular at exclusive Oslo nightclubs, where he would fraternise with celebrities, models and social media stars. By his own admission, he was also a regular user of drugs.
After completing high school, he dropped out of a business course in the United States and briefly worked at the now-defunct British style magazine Tempus.
Despite having no official role or royal duties, he would make appearances on Norwegian television, such as a cameo as a partygoer in a drama series, and attend VIP events such as the Maleficent 2 Disney premiere in 2019.
His high-profile arrest in August 2024 and ensuing police investigation led to the disclosure that his lifestyle was being funded by his royal parents, who paid his bills and granted a monthly allowance of 20,000 kroner ($3640).
It had also emerged that Høiby was allowed to travel on a diplomatic passport, which was highly unusual as he did not hold a royal title. The Norwegian royal palace has since said that the passport, which he received as a child, has been rescinded.
One year on from his arrest, Norwegian prosecutors completed their investigation and would eventually level 38 charges against Høiby. His stepfather, Haakon, said the young man’s fate was in the hands of the courts.
Last week, Haakon issued a rare public statement before the trial which sought to further distance Høiby from the rest of the royal family.
“Our thoughts are with everyone who is affected by this case. It has an impact on the individuals, their families and all those who care about them. We understand that this is a difficult time for many of you, and we sympathise,” the Crown Prince, 52, said.
He added: “Marius Borg Høiby is not a member of the royal house of Norway and is therefore autonomous. We care about him, and he is an important member of our family. He is a citizen of Norway and, as such, has the same responsibilities as everyone else – as well as the same rights.”
The trial follows two other, less serious crises for the Norwegian royal family. Mette-Marit is currently on the waiting list for a lung transplant because of a severe lung illness. The family has also had to contend with the controversial marriage of Harald’s daughter, Princess Martha Louise, 54, to an American conspiracy theorist and self-styled shaman.
But a fourth scandal erupted over the weekend, as Mette-Marit was named in several hundred newly released documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The files revealed that she stayed at Epstein’s Miami home for four nights in January 2013, and that she once told him: “You tickle my brain.”
The Crown Princess has expressed “deep sympathy and solidarity” with Epstein’s victims and says she regrets meeting him.
Despite the controversy, the Norwegian monarchy remains popular with an approval rating of 73% according to a survey last year.
When the trial begins, it seems doubtful that Høiby will find much moral support from relatives in the courtroom itself. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess are “not planning to be present in the courtroom”, their statement says.
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor’s Picks, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week’s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here.