Son of Norway's crown princess charged with rape and abuse
Marius Borg Høiby at an event in 2022 (Picture: GETTY IMAGES)
The eldest son of Norway's crown princess has been charged with 32 offences, including four counts of rape, a prosecutor says.
The charges against Marius Borg Høiby, 28, include the abuse of a former partner and violations of restraining orders against another former partner.
He was born from a relationship before Crown Princess Mette-Marit married Crown Prince Haakon, who is the future king of Norway.
Mr Høiby denies the most serious accusations against him, but plans to plead guilty to some lesser charges when the trial starts, his lawyer Petar Sekulic told Reuters news agency.
He could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the most serious charges.
He has also been charged with filming the genitals of a number of women without their knowledge or consent, prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø told reporters.
"He does not agree with the claims regarding rape and domestic violence," Mr Sekulic said of his client, according to Reuters.
The four alleged rapes are said to have occurred between 2018 and 2024, with one of them allegedly taking place after his arrest, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reports.
Mr Høiby, who does not have a royal title or official duties, was arrested three separate times last year, in August, September and November. He had been under investigation since his August arrest on suspicion of assault. In June, police said he was suspected of three rapes and 23 other offences.
The prosecutor said the trial could take place in January and last some six weeks.
Thought our royals had it bad? Spare a thought for the King of Norway, whose grandson is facing vile sex claims that threaten to bring down their entire monarchy
To the world at large, King Harald of Norway is the perfect 21st century monarch. A figure of quiet dignity and modesty, loved by his people as an ordinary family man whose lifelong pastime is sailing.
He is especially admired for his devotion to his wife Queen Sonja, who was once deemed not suitable as a royal bride because of her commoner background, and their 57 years of married life is held up in sexually liberal Norway as a perfect example of what marriage should be.
But lately as he nears the 35th anniversary of his coronation next January, that admiration for the 88-year-old King and the Norwegian royals is beginning to wear thin.
The dull respectability that made it the envy of other European crowned heads – including our own House of Windsor – has undergone a darker, more troubling transformation with a series of scandals.
This week it emerged that Marius Borg Hoiby, stepson of the crown prince (and the King's 'honorary' grandson) has been charged with raping four women and 28 other offences including assault, threats and criminal damage. The charges carry the possibility of ten years in jail.
Hoiby is the son of Princess Mette Marit, 52, from a brief liaison with a convicted criminal before she met and married the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon, also 52.
According to the indictment, the alleged victims were attacked when they were 'incapable of resisting due to sleep and/or intoxication'. Hoiby, 28, is also accused of abusing two of his former girlfriends and of filming women's genitals without their consent.
The seven-page document says he subjected his then partner Nora Haukland to 'repeated violence, threatening behaviour and other abusive acts' at various locations in Norway and Barbados.
It accuses him of persistently 'striking her, placing her in a chokehold, kicking her and grabbing her forcefully'.
Prosecutors claim he also 'threw objects' at Ms Haukland, destroyed household items, smashing mobile phones and cupboard doors.
Another girlfriend, Rebecca Helberg Arntsen, was regularly put in a chokehold 'so that she could not breathe', hit in the face and held down on a bed.
He also allegedly smashed a mirror, pulled down a chandelier and 'threw a knife into a wall' after accusing the model and influencer of cheating on him and shouting at her that she was a 'whore'.
The indictment says Hoiby 'violated' Ms Arntsen's peace by calling her 172 times and leaving 'numerous messages'. He is also accused of taking intimate photographs without her knowledge and filming himself performing a sex act on her at a Berlin hotel.
Although the heavily tattooed Hoiby is not a prince and performs no royal duties, the outrage since his arrest last year has taken its toll on the standing of what was once Europe's most popular and stable monarchy.
Roger Oversveen, a leading royal commentator, says: 'People all over are shocked by this. When the King and Queen both turned 80 [in 2017] around 80 per cent of the public supported the monarchy. But that was down to 67 per cent last year and that was before this controversy emerged.'
Membership of the country's republican movement has more than doubled and some surveys have suggested that one in three people would like to abolish the crown.
Certainly the mood among spectators at the changing of the guard ceremony at Oslo's royal palace was sombre. Sofie Barsness, a 42-year-old researcher, said news of the charges 'has caused and will continue to cause a lot of disquiet and shock'.
Hoiby is not the only drag on royal popularity. Last year Harald's daughter Princess Martha Louise, 53, married bisexual adventurer Durek Verrett, 50, who calls himself a sixth-generation shaman whose powers to communicate with the spirit world have won him Hollywood fans including Gwyneth Paltrow.
Lurid stories in Norwegian media tell a different story. They have included recordings of Verrett where he admitted sexual assault and 'sucking the c***' of his clients during shamanistic sessions – actions, he claimed, his wife knew all about.
For her part Martha Louise, a mother of three – once tipped as a potential bride for Prince Edward – has boasted of being a clairvoyant with the ability of communicating with animals and angels and described herself as a 'high sensitivity light fountain'.
But while many have been entertained by the couple's antics, famously open-minded Norwegians fear they have undermined support for their royals.
Revelations last week have shone a light on a different side of life in one of Scandinavia's bicycling monarchies.
Where once there was a sense of national pride at the ordinariness of Norway's first family – there are now questions about whether this so-called relatability was nothing more than a mirage. The sagas of British royals such as Prince Harry and Prince Andrew are no longer something that they chuckle over in Oslo's smarter drawing rooms.
As the first royal stepson Hoiby was an object of public curiosity and sympathy in his childhood, nicknamed Little Marius after a schoolboy born out of wedlock in a popular Norwegian novel. But it would be hard to fictionalise the story of the real-life Marius.
As a single mother and former waitress, the glamorous Mette Marit has never really been able to escape her past. There were raised eyebrows at the time of the 2001 wedding about her 'debauched' time as part of Oslo's drug-fuelled house party scene. And then there were the escapades of her father, a failed advertising executive.
Aged 68 Sven Hoiby married a stripper only three years older than his daughter and at the time of the royal wedding he claimed to be so hard up he could not afford a morning suit. His toe-curling money-making stunts included being adopted as a mascot by a Norwegian 'death punk' band and working as an Elvis impersonator. For all the embarrassments he was, however, permitted to witness his daughter tying the knot – though security guards relieved him of the camera supplied by a magazine to record the event.
His grandson Marius was at the centre of the unconventional ceremony. Here, declared fans, was an example of how blended family life could work even at the very pinnacle of Norwegian society.
Every aspect of the day was choreographed, from the contingent of former drug users and prostitutes invited to be part of the congregation, to pageboy Marius waving to the crowds.
Mette Marit, meanwhile, won over sceptics who feared she was not suitable material for a royal princess. In a pre-wedding interview, she expressed regret at her wild past. 'I have had experiences for which I paid dearly,' she said.
For his part King Harald spoke movingly of his new daughter-in-law's qualities. And of her son he declared: 'I have met the young master, and he can be assured he will be a full member of the family and will not be ignored.'
When Mette Marit gave birth to two children with Haakon, Marius was christened by the King his 'bonus' grandchild. How poignant those words seem today in the glare of unremitting and bad publicity. For years Marius has attracted headlines for the wrong reasons. His playboy behaviour was a fixture of the gossip columns.
After leaving school in 2016 he moved to California and enrolled on a business course at Santa Monica College, but he dropped out in his first term and returned home to become an intern at a fashion company. Drifting into other jobs he worked as a salesman for an app developer and as a motorcycle mechanic. None lasted long.
He is said to receive a monthly allowance of 20,000 Kroner, or around £1,450. It is unlikely to go far in the notoriously expensive Norwegian capital. The Harley Davidson-riding and Rolex-wearing Hoiby has a taste for partying and is a regular at Michaels basement club where bottles of Dom Perignon champagne start at £340.
Heavily tattooed he has '1997', the year he was born, inked prominently on his torso.
In 2017 at the age of 20 he was fined 4,000 Kroner (£290) after being caught with cocaine in the VIP section of a music festival.
The public relationship with its royal stepson became increasingly turbulent amid claims that a girlfriend once posed for Playboy, and another posted nudes on social media and was allegedly a drug user.
Until the last year, he had mainly come to the authorities' attention through his association with drug dealers. (His natural father has two drug convictions from the 1990s.)
It emerged that police had warned Hoiby after he was spotted with a man linked to a major amphetamine supply network.
It was also claimed that silverware and other valuables disappeared during one of several raucous parties on the Skaugum Castle estate – the official residence of the Crown Prince and Princess – thrown by Hoiby.
This week after the formal indictment, lawyers for Hoiby said he recognised the seriousness of the charges. The royal household said it was now a matter for the courts to decide.
For the ailing King Harald, whose health is poor, the events have taken their toll. To Norway's monarchists it is a crisis every bit as serious as the annus horribilis which devastated Britain's Royal Family in 1992.
No wonder they are asking if things can ever be the same again.
By RICHARD KAY, EDITOR-AT-LARGE and RONAN O' REILLY
Daily Mail
25 August 2025
Original article HERE
Son of Norway's crown princess holds back tears giving evidence at rape trial
A court sketch shows Marius Borg Høiby giving evidence
The son of Norway's crown princess has told a court in Oslo he has lived a life of partying out of an extreme need of validation, on the second day of his trial for rape and more than 30 other alleged offences.
Marius Borg Høiby, 29, looked overwhelmed by the occasion, his voice quivering as he paused several times to take off his glasses and wipe his eyes.
Holding back tears, he said it was very difficult to talk, and complained of being followed by the press since he was three years old.
He denies four allegations of rape as well as other serious charges against him.
He was giving evidence after the first woman he is alleged to have raped told the court she believed "100 percent" that she had been drugged during an "after-party" in the basement of Høiby's parents' house in December 2018.
The woman spoke of her sense of "betrayal and shock" after police showed her videos several years later, allegedly depicting him sexually assaulting her shortly after they had had brief, consensual sex.
She had already spoken of a "black hole" in her memory and told the court behind closed doors that she had no recollection of what happened.
The court has ordered the media not to give any information that might identify any of the four women. There is also a ban on any photos of Marius Borg Høiby, either inside the court building or on his way to and from the trial.
The 29-year-old defendant, who was born four years before his mother, Mette-Marit, married Norway's Crown Prince Haakon, is not a member of the royal family or a public figure, but grew up as part of the wider family.
During his first appearance in court on Tuesday, he was seen shaking. He is understood have had hospital treatment overnight.
Høiby was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of assault and wielding a knife and remanded in custody for four weeks. However, he did not return to custody before his statement on Wednesday.
He took a seat in court and after several minutes appearing to be overcome by the occasion, he regained his composure and told the court he had had a lot of sex, drugs and alcohol because he had an extreme need of validation.
"I am known for being Mamma's son. Nothing else," he told the three judges.
"Few can relate to the life I have led. A lot of parties, alcohol, some drugs."
His trial comes at a tense moment for his mother, who was found to have exchanged hundreds of messages with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a three-year period.
The royal palace said on Wednesday that Crown Princess Mette-Marit had postponed a private trip "until further notice", without giving further details.
She has expressed regret and poor judgement over the correspondence.
However, the storm of criticism over the unguarded, warm tone of the exchanges has heaped pressure on the royal house, when Mette-Marit is also seeing her son on trial for rape.
Marius Borg Høiby was arrested in August 2024 after a violent incident at his girlfriend's flat in the Frogner area of western Oslo, when he is alleged to have torn down a chandelier, thrown a knife at the wall and shattered a mirror, while hurling abuse at her.
At the time he spoke of having suffered for years with mental issues and admitted to substance abuse.
After a lengthy police investigation, he was charged a large number of offences, ranging from rape, assault, threatening a girlfriend and damaging her flat, as well as drugs charges and driving offences. If found guilty he could face at least 10 years in jail.
He is accused of raping four women between December 2018 and November 2024, all of them after consensual sex, and while they were either asleep or incapacitated. One of the charges involves full intercourse, and the other three sexual assault, which is also seen as rape in Norway.
Wearing a dark blue woollen sweater over of a smart beige shirt, he looked straight at the three judges who were sitting about 10m (30ft) away from him. Later in the afternoon he removed the sweater.
Although he had notes, he rarely looked down at them. He spoke for about half an hour without interruption.
Høiby did not look to his left where two of the women he is alleged to have raped listened to his evidence a short distance away.
The woman who gave evidence earlier did not stay in court.
He spoke of how he met her at a party in 2018 and had taken cocaine for the first time.
When he finished giving his statement, prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø asked him about the first alleged rape in 2018.
The defendant disputed the account given earlier, and said he did not remember taking videos, denying they had had brief consensual sex for a few seconds in a toilet in his parents' basement. Instead he said they had had consensual sex after others at the after-party had gone to bed.
Asked by the prosecutor if she had been awake when they had sex, he was adamant: "I don't sleep with women who aren't awake."
The 29-year-old has denied all but one of six counts of sexually offensive conduct without consent which includes filming graphic videos. In his testimony, he admitted filming a five-minute video of the woman in his family's basement, although he did not remember doing so.
When pressed by the prosecutor how he could be sure she was awake in the video, he appeared to become frustrated, saying he had said "a million times" he did not remember the sequence of events.
The woman's attorney, Heidi Reisvang, told the BBC that it had been extremely hard for her client to give evidence over two days and she was relieved it was over: "The most important thing for her was to say she was not able to resist or give consent."
Marius Borg Høiby also took aim at the Norwegian press, accusing them of twisting the facts, disputing a story that his mother had taken a sim-card out of his phone before it was handed to police at the time of his arrest in August 2024.
He is due to continue giving evidence on Thursday.
By Paul Kirby - Europe digital editor in Oslo
BBC News
4 February 2026
Original article HERE
