{"id":429608,"date":"2025-09-16T19:56:16","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429608\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T19:56:16","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T19:56:16","slug":"netflixs-royal-rebels-and-6-scandals-of-the-norwegian-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/429608\/","title":{"rendered":"Netflix\u2019s \u2018Royal Rebels\u2019 and 6 Scandals of the Norwegian Crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

As viewers the world over tune in to the new Netflix<\/a> documentary, Royal Rebels: An Unlikely Love Story<\/a>, which charts the controversial relationship of Norwegian Princess, M\u00e4rtha Louise, and her shaman husband, Durek Verrett, curiosity about the family as a whole has certainly piqued.<\/p>\n

Much like the British royal family<\/a>, the Norwegian crown has been dogged by serious scandals over the years\u2014with some baring a striking similarity to those that the Windsors have faced (see: a royal stepping down from their duties after marrying an American and a worrying link to convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein). <\/p>\n

While King Harald and his wife Queen Sonja have emerged relatively unscathed, it seems their children, Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon, have had their fair share of run-ins with the press. More recently, there have been serious sexual assault allegations made against a royal step-son, too.<\/p>\n

Here are the 7 biggest scandals to hit the Norwegian royal family’s in recent years.<\/p>\n

2000: Prince Haakon’s engagement to Mette-Marit Tjessem H\u00f8iby<\/p>\n

When King Harald and Queen Sonja’s son, Prince Haakon, announced his engagement to renowned former party girl and single mother, Mette-Marit Tjessem H\u00f8iby, the monarchy’s approval rating in Norway slumped to 58% (when it typically would be at least 75%). <\/p>\n

The public were later won over when Mette-Marit held a tearful press conference, just days before her wedding in 2001, and came clean about her \u201cyouthful rebellion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe stepped over limits, and I’m very sorry about that,\u201d she told<\/a> gathered press. \u201cIt was important for me to live in defiance of what was accepted […] I would like to take this opportunity to condemn drugs. I hope that I can now avoid talking more about my past and that the press will respect this wish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"norwegian\"pinterest\"<\/a>Mark Cuthbert\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Norwegian King Harald, Crown Prince Haakon and his bride, Mette-Marit, and her son, Marius, stand on the balcony of the Oslo Cathedral after their wedding (Aug. 25, 2001)<\/p>\n

2005: Mette-Marit Tjessem H\u00f8iby’s father makes headlines<\/p>\n

After navigating her media storm, Mette-Marit’s father, Sven O. H\u00f8iby, caused his own uproar after not only giving paid interviews and photos to the press of\/about his daughter and grandson, Marius, but when he married a former stripper, Renate Barsg\u00e5rd, in 2005. The relationship broke down three months later.<\/p>\n

2007: Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise sets up her \u201cangel school\u201d<\/p>\n

A story that saw the royals met with nationwide ridicule, Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise announced she would be launching her alternative education centre, Astarte Education, and claimed she could speak not only to angels but to animals too. <\/p>\n

The centre was speedily nicknamed \u201cangel school\u201d by Norway’s press and some called for King Harald and Queen Sonja’s eldest child and only daughter to renounce her title (something she actually did do many years down the line). She ran the school from 2007 to 2018.<\/p>\n

2019: Crown Princess Mette-Marit apologizes for ties to Jeffrey Epstein<\/p>\n

Prince Andrew<\/a> isn’t the only royal to be embroiled in a scandal relating to convicted sex offender and disgraced financier, Jeffrey Epstein. Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit was also forced to apologized for meeting with him on multiple occasions between 2011 and 2013\u2014several years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute.<\/p>\n

In a written statement, the Princess said, \u201cI would never have had anything to do with Epstein if I had been aware of the seriousness of his criminal acts. I should have examined Epstein’s past more closely, and I regret that I did not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"princess\"pinterest\"<\/a>Pascal Le Segretain\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Princess Mette-Marit of Norway pictured at a Swedish royal wedding in 2013<\/p>\n

2019: Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise’s relationship with Durek Verrett<\/p>\n

Prior to announcing her relationship with Durek in 2019, M\u00e4rtha Louise was already far from your standard Princess, with her love of clairvoyance already well known. Her relationship with so-called shaman Durek, documented in the new Netflix programmed, Royal Rebels, however, provoked quite the response\u2014not least because of his prior prison stint (a result of an arson charge in 1991) and love of promoting conspiracy theories along with disinformation. <\/p>\n

During the pandemic, Durek reportedly<\/a> sold necklaces to \u201cward off the virus\u201d and in his 2019 book, Spirit Hacking, which was later banned, he falsely claims that cancer is a \u201cchoice\u201d and stems from emotional unhappiness. <\/p>\n

A poll later found<\/a> 17% of Norwegians had a lower opinion of the royals overall following M\u00e4rtha Louise’s relationship with Durek Verrett. <\/p>\n

\"princess\"pinterest\"<\/a>HEIKO JUNGE\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Princess and Durek Verrett on their wedding day in August 2024<\/p>\n

This same year, M\u00e4rtha Louise came under fire for using her Princess title to promote a spiritual lecture tour, The Princess and the Shaman, and was forced to apologize: \u201cIt was a mistake and I understand that it provoked (people) when the princess-title was used in that manner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

2022: Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise quits her royal duties<\/p>\n

Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise explained her decision to renounce her title was borne of a desire to focus on alternative medicine and spirituality work with her fianc\u00e9, but others saw her choice to give up her patronages as the royal family’s attempt to claw back some popularity points.<\/p>\n

2024-2025: Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg H\u00f8iby, accused of rape and assault<\/strong><\/p>\n

After initial allegations of a domestic abuse and violence were made in 2024 by his ex-partner, which he admitted to, it was reported<\/a> in August of 2025 that Marius Borg H\u00f8iby\u2014the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, from a relationship prior to marrying royalty\u2014has also been charged with raping four women and photographing their genitals without consent. <\/p>\n

The alleged assaults are said to have taken place in 2018, 2023, and 2024 (after police had launched their initial investigation following Marius’ ex alleging he assaulted her while drunk and on cocaine). If found guilty, Marius could reportedly face up to a decade in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the biggest crisis [the monarchy has experienced] since 1905 and the country’s independence,\u201d Caroline Vagle, reporter for the magazine Se og H\u00f8r, commented after news broke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As viewers the world over tune in to the new Netflix documentary, Royal Rebels: An Unlikely Love Story,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429609,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[1380,146390,1331,3989,1381,5105,7710,519,448,146389],"class_list":{"0":"post-429608","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-content-type-news","9":"tag-contentid-89194ebd-b43b-466f-95b0-04c17cb16ac5","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-hasproduct-true","12":"tag-locale-us","13":"tag-royal","14":"tag-royal-families","15":"tag-royal-family","16":"tag-royals","17":"tag-shorttitle-7-major-royal-scandals-to-hit-the-norwegian-crown"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115215741354447054","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429608\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}