{"id":566409,"date":"2026-02-04T20:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/566409\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T20:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T20:01:10","slug":"what-to-know-about-norways-royals-as-crown-princess-and-her-son-face-new-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/566409\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about Norway’s royals as crown princess and her son face new scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"

OSLO, Norway (AP) \u2014 The eldest son of Norway\u2019s crown princess was back in court on Wednesday for Day Two of a trial at which he is facing allegations of multiple alleged offenses, including rape. <\/p>\n

Marius Borg H\u00f8iby, 29, pleaded not guilty<\/a> to the most serious charges as the seven-week trial opened on Tuesday. He is the first son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and the stepson of the heir to the throne, Prince Haakon. <\/p>\n

While H\u00f8iby has no royal title or official duties, the case \u2014 and new revelations about Mette-Marit\u2019s contacts with Jeffrey Epstein \u2014 has put an international spotlight on a widely beloved royal family.<\/p>\n

A look at Norway\u2019s royal family tree<\/p>\n

King Harald<\/a>, 88, belongs to the House of Gl\u00fccksburg and heads a monarchy in Norway that dates back more than 1,100 years. But like with many European royal houses, Norway\u2019s monarch wields no real political power today.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian royal house has kinfolk in other European royal families. For example, Harald is related to both Britain\u2019s King Charles III and Spain\u2019s King Felipe VI: They\u2019re all descendants of Queen Victoria in the UK.<\/p>\n

Harald married Sonja Haraldsen, a commoner, in 1968. Their son Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, both 52, were married in 2001. She made headlines that year because she was a single mother who had lived a freewheeling life with a companion who had been convicted on drug charges.<\/p>\n

The crown prince and princess share two children: Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 21, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 19. <\/p>\n

The Norwegian Constitution was altered in 1990 to allow the firstborn, regardless of gender, to take precedence in the line of succession. That means that Princess Ingrid Alexandra is due to one day ascend the Norwegian throne.<\/p>\n

The change does not apply retroactively and Haakon remains first in line to the throne even though he has an older sister, Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise<\/a>,<\/p>\n

Crown princess had contacts with Jeffrey Epstein<\/p>\n

Mette-Marit has long been known to have had contacts with Jeffrey Epstein. But she\u2019s faced new scrutiny over their ties following the largest release of Epstein documents<\/a> on Friday. <\/p>\n

In a statement after the release, Mette-Marit said she took responsibility for \u201cnot having investigated Epstein\u2019s background more thoroughly,\u201d and expressed regret for \u201chaving had any contact with Epstein at all. It is simply embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She expressed \u201cdeep sympathy and solidarity\u201d with the victims of abuse committed by Epstein.<\/p>\n

The latest release of documents included an email from Mette-Marit to Epstein in November 2012 asking: \u201cIs it inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my I5 yr old sons wallpaper ?\u201d <\/p>\n

He replied: \u201clet them decide\u201d and advised that the mother should \u201cstay out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an email exchange from the previous month, Epstein noted how he was in Paris \u201con my wife hunt,\u201d but \u201ci prefer Scandinavians.\u201d <\/p>\n

She replied that Paris was \u201cgood for adultery\u201d but \u201cScandis\u201d were \u201cbetter wife material.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her son is denying rape charges in court<\/p>\n

H\u00f8iby took the witness stand on Wednesday, a day after denying rape charges. Norwegian tabloid VG reported that he cried at one point and lashed out at the media for the intense attention he has received since he was a toddler. <\/p>\n

The crown prince issued a statement last week saying the couple would not be present in court nor comment on the case during the trial. It noted that H\u00f8iby was not a member of the Royal House, before adding: \u201cWe care about him, and he is an important member of our family.\u201d <\/p>\n

The statement said Mette-Marit was planning an unspecified \u201cprivate stay\u201d over the coming weeks. On Wednesday, Sara Svanemyr, a communications adviser for the Royal Court, wrote in an email that the crown princess \u201chas, until further notice, postponed the planned trip.\u201d It did not elaborate. <\/p>\n

Last month, the court said medical tests had shown a \u201cclear worsening\u201d of Mette-Marit\u2019s health in connection with a lung disease known as pulmonary fibrosis that was diagnosed in 2018. It said physicians had started a process of looking into the possibility of lung-transplant surgery for her.<\/p>\n

The fallout <\/p>\n

The royal family has traditionally enjoyed wide public support, but its popularity has declined since Oslo police in August 2024<\/a> said H\u00f8iby was facing suspicion for causing bodily harm and criminal damage.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo this has been like a shocking one and half year for the Norwegian people because we really love our royal family,\u201d said Tove Taalesen, a royal expert at the Nettavisen newspaper. \u201cWe respect them, and we look at King Harald as like our grandfather.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Norstat agency poll for Dagbladet daily and public broadcaster NRK showed that two-thirds of respondents said they supported the constitutional monarchy as a form of government, down from nearly three-fourths in August. A similar poll for VG also indicated declining support for the monarchy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like the king, but with H\u00f8iby and the new released Epstein files and Mette-Marit, it\u2019s so much to think about,\u201d said student Gustav Onarheim in Oslo on Monday. \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to get the results in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Lewis reported from Stavanger, Norway and Keaten reported from Geneva. Aaron Kessler in Washington contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OSLO, Norway (AP) \u2014 The eldest son of Norway\u2019s crown princess was back in court on Wednesday for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":566410,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[185,356,171,57,246821,246820,15053,45981,185224,246822,18242,246819,45980,246817,235115,10409,246818,67,132,68,107],"class_list":["post-566409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-courts","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-gustav-onarheim","tag-ingrid-alexandra","tag-jeffrey-epstein","tag-king-charles-iii","tag-king-felipe-vi","tag-marius-borg-hiby","tag-norway","tag-queen-sonja","tag-royalty","tag-sara-svanemyr","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sexual-assault","tag-tove-taalesen","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116014146662572816","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/566410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}