Norwegian Royals' Big Scandal Comes to a Head

While the British royal family confronts Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's links to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Norway's royal house is facing its biggest scandal to date: a rape trial. Marius Borg Hoiby, the 29-year-old son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit and stepson of Crown Prince Haakon, faces 38 counts, including four alleged rapes, physical assault, threats, property damage, drug offenses, and driving violations, in a trial opening Tuesday in Oslo, per the BBC. The rape charges stretch from 2018 to late 2024 and focus on sexual acts with women said to have been asleep or otherwise incapacitated. Hoiby has admitted some lesser offenses, including abuse and vandalism, but denies wrongdoing in most of the case.

The court has banned photography of him, even as international media pack the courtroom for what is expected to be a seven-week trial. Haakon and Mette-Marit will not attend, per the BBC. The palace insists Hoiby is not part of the royal family and holds no title, though he has long been treated as family by King Harald V, 88, and by Haakon, who has described him as a son. Haakon, who is first in line to the throne, issued a carefully balanced statement, saying the family loves Hoiby while also expressing concern for the women involved. Mette-Marit, seriously ill with pulmonary fibrosis and awaiting a lung transplant, remains largely out of public view.

The case lands as the royals navigate a broader run of uncomfortable headlines: Princess Märtha Louise's controversial marriage to self-styled shaman Durek Verrett and Mette-Marit's acknowledged but now-regretted contacts with Jeffrey Epstein. She's mentioned "several hundred" times in newly released documents, per the AP. Even so, recent polling suggests about three-quarters of Norwegians still support the monarchy, and few expect parliament's routine vote on abolishing it—due the same day the trial opens—to pass. Still, the proceedings will test how far that goodwill extends, as several women are expected to give detailed testimony about their dealings with the man long seen on the balcony next to Norway's future king.