Rape trial puts Norway’s royal family in unwelcome glare of public

When Marius Borg Høiby stands up in room 250 at Oslo district court on Tuesday, at the start of Norway's biggest trial in years, he will have no moral support from his closest relatives. His mother Crown Princess Mette-Marit will not be there, nor will the man she married when her son was four - the heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon.

For the next seven weeks there will be no pictures of the blond 29-year-old either inside the court or outside - the court has banned them - but the world's press is here in numbers and the palace is keeping well away.

Høiby is accused of 38 charges, including the rape of four women, assaulting and threatening a girlfriend and damaging her flat, as well as drugs charges and driving offences. If found guilty he could face more than 10 years in jail.

The palace stresses Marius Borg Høiby is not part of the royal family, and that he is not a public figure. But he is considered a close member of the family, by his stepfather the crown prince who sees him as a son, and by Norway's much loved King Harald V, 88, who he has known for much of his life as his grandfather.

"It's a very dangerous moment, because the royal family should be role models," says Ulf Andre Andersen, who broke the story for celebrity-focused magazine Se og Hør in early August 2024 when police were called to a woman's flat in Frogner on the west side of Oslo after reports of a violent incident.

Marius Borg Høiby has admitted some of the lesser offences, and after his arrest admitted physical abuse and destroying objects. The indictment alleges he tore down a chandelier, threw a knife at the wall and shattered a mirror, calling the woman words such as whore.

The four rape charges date from 2018, at his parents' official residence, the Skaugum estate outside Oslo, to November 2024, after his initial arrest. One of the four, dating back to 2023, involves intercourse while the woman was asleep. The other three also involve sexual assault while the women were incapacitated, which also counts as rape in Norway.

"This is the biggest scandal the Norwegian royals ever had," says Andersen's colleague and current Se og Hør editor-in-chief Niklas Kokkinn-Thoresen, who covered the arrest with him at the time. "They've never had to deal with anything of this measure."

Known to Norwegians since his mother married into the royal family, Marius has admitted to years of struggles with substance abuse and spoken of "several mental illnesses" since childhood.

Approached for comment by the BBC, his lawyers pointed to a previous statement by defence counsel Petar Sekulic: "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."

Evidence will emerge from a number of women, not just those he is alleged to have raped.

Only one can be identified. Former girlfriend and social influencer Nora Haukland had sought anonymity, but the courts rejected her appeal. The allegations she made in public after his arrest form part of the indictment against him, that he punched her in face, kicked her and choked her, shouting at her that she was a "whore".

These are among the very serious charges denied by his defence - as is a charge of transporting 3.5kg of marijuana that was added only last month.

But it is the rape and sexual assault allegations that will be the focus of much of the case, and the testimony of the women involved.

"A few of the victims in the court case are well known influencers, but most of them are just regular girls who now will have to endure several weeks of having their most intimate experiences investigated in front of hundreds of journalists," says journalist Torgeir Krokfjord who co-wrote a book about Marius Borg Høiby's alleged links to the drugs world. "Just imagine how painful this will be for them."

An emotional Crown Prince Haakon addressed the women and their families when he spoke to reporters ahead of his stepson's trial.

"We love him, of course, he's an important part of our family," he said, before going on to address the women directly: "We care about them. We know many of you are going through a difficult time right now."

Prince Haakon is next in line to the throne. King Harald and Queen Sonja are both 88 and they too will not attend the trial. During the week they will travel to Italy for the start of the Winter Olympics, visiting Norwegian athletes.

Crown Princess Mette-Marit meanwhile is very unwell with pulmonary fibrosis, and her doctors are preparing her for a lung transplant.

Her illness can be fatal and I understand that, for the royal family, Mette-Marit's health overshadows everything.

She appeared in public last week with Crown Prince Haakon, and while she looked fine she has difficulty in breathing.

She spoke very personally about her son's problems during a documentary on public broadcaster NRK over Christmas: "What I'm perhaps most upset about is being criticised for how we've handled it as parents. That we haven't taken it seriously, I find that difficult. To be so harshly criticised in a situation where we've tried to do the best we can and sought professional help… so it feels a bit unfair".

Norway's royal house has long been known for its openness and there is no big gated courtyard in front of the palace.

Norwegians never did put their royals on a pedestal, but the succession of scandals has made them more critical of the family.

Tove Taalesen, who is royal correspondent for the Nettavisen website and worked inside the palace for a number of years, believes the crown prince made a big mistake in failing to make his stepson's role clear when he married Mette-Marit in August 2001 and showed the four-year-old to a captive audience from the palace balcony.

"He lifted up this sweet, innocent little boy and presented him to the Norwegian people. He was a stepdad and he wanted to include Marius, but at the same time they didn't give Marius any title, any purpose, so he had this odd function in the family - he was a big part of it, but he wasn't a part of it."

The royal house has also had to deal with the fallout of another royal wedding, involving Crown Prince Haakon's elder sister, Princess Märtha Louise, to an American shaman, Durek Verrett, not long after Marius Borg Høiby's arrest in August 2024.

Märtha Louise agreed to drop her title of princess over claims that they had used her royal title for commercial gain, but then upset the palace last autumn by taking part in a Netflix documentary on their wedding.

And the negative stories keep coming. Among the three million files released on Friday night relating to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, several hundred mentioned Crown Princess Mette Marit.

It has emerged that the crown princess stayed at his house in Palm Beach, Miami, for four nights in January 2013 while he was not there, and that in October 2012 Epstein raised the issue of "wife hunting".

In other emails from the HRH Crown Princess account, Epstein is told "you tickle my brain", and he is asked "what do you have to do besides seeing me?"

The palace told the BBC that Princess Mette-Marit had always been open about meeting Epstein between 2011 and 2013 and she has released a statement expressing "deep sympathy and solidarity" with Epstein's victims as well as her "poor judgement and regret… it is simply embarrassing".

The monarchy is widely respected in Norway - especially because of the popularity of King Harald V, and the recent setbacks do not appear to have caused any lasting damage so far.

It still has the support of 73% of the public, according to a survey late last year by pollster Norstat, which suggests most Norwegians are prepared to separate the trial from their overall view of the family.

But the royals know they cannot afford to be complacent.

Last week, Marius Borg Høiby's sister, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, made a much-publicised visit to the Finnmark area of northern Norway. Although the palace describes her tour before the trial as long-planned and unrelated, some royal watchers here believe it was not a coincidence.

She is after all in line to be Norway's queen.

Every four years Norway's parliament, the Storting, holds a vote on replacing the monarchy, which by coincidence comes up again on Tuesday, just as the trial at Oslo district court is getting under way. No-one expects it to succeed.