{"id":272062,"date":"2026-01-30T14:49:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/272062\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T14:49:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T14:49:14","slug":"norways-trial-of-the-century-begins-next-week-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/272062\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway\u2019s trial of the century begins next week \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the Quart musical festival in southern Norway<\/a> in July 1996, the headliner was Nick Cave<\/a> and the Bad Seeds.<\/p>\n

In the crowd was Mette-Marit Tjessem H\u00f8iby, a 22-year-old waitress from the southern coastal city of Kristiansand.<\/p>\n

She had yet to tell anyone she was three months pregnant with the child of a man named Morten Borg. She hadn\u2019t even revealed the pregnancy to her friend at the festival who introduced her that night to Norway\u2019s most eligible bachelor: Haakon, crown prince of Norway.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old royal fell hard for the \u2018commoner\u2019 and a short summer romance followed, but friends say things went quiet again until they met three years later at the same festival.<\/p>\n

By now Mette was a single mother of a two-year-old son, Marius Borg H\u00f8iby, and Haakon, sure she was the one, was determined not to let her slip away again.<\/p>\n

Their subsequent courtship was a tabloid fever dream as the couple tried but failed to dodge the paparazzi with dates in London and New York. <\/p>\n

After months of public headlines and private lobbying, Haakon won over his doubting family and his marriage to Mette-Marit in August 2001 was billed a triumph of love.<\/p>\n

\"NewlywedsNewlyweds Prince Haakon, second right, and Mette-Marit, second left, with four-year-old Marius Borg, standing, in August 2001. Photograph: Getty <\/p>\n

Featured in almost all pictures of the happy couple was Marius, by now an exhausted-looking blond four year-old. The tabloids dubbed him \u201cthe little prince\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday the little prince, Marius Borg H\u00f8iby, now a 29-year-old tattooed lover of drugs and guns, goes on trial in Oslo in what Norway has billed its trial of the century.<\/p>\n

Charges include four counts of rape \u2013 one with sexual intercourse \u2013 and 28 other crimes, including acts of violence against women, many allegedly filmed by him on his phone.<\/p>\n

Borg H\u00f8iby has admitted to assaulting one woman, Rebecca Helberg Arntsen, in a drink-and-drug-fuelled attack on August 4th, 2024. The night ended with her in hospital and him in a police cell.<\/p>\n

His victim says the assault involved strangling and multiple blows but, in recordings obtained by Norwegian tabloid VG, Borg H\u00f8iby allegedly described his assault as \u201ca little pat on the back\u201d.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, two further women have come forward with similar stories; whether any were girlfriends of Borg H\u00f8iby is a matter of dispute.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, an additional six-count indictment was brought, including a \u201cnarcotics offence\u201d involving 3.5kg of marijuana.<\/p>\n

Defence lawyer Petar Sekulic has said his client will plead guilty to some lesser charges, but denies the more serious charges of rape and violent assault.<\/p>\n

In a statement 10 days after his arrest in August 2024, Borg H\u00f8iby said he had suffered from \u201cmental Troubles\u201d, had struggled \u201cfor a long time with substance abuse\u201d and, during the August altercation, acted \u201cunder the influence of alcohol and cocaine\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe drug use and my diagnoses do not excuse what happened,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to be responsible for what I have done, and will explain myself truthfully to the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PrincessPrincess Mette-Marit with son Marius Borg Hoiby in August 2011 in Oslo. Photograph: Nigel Waldron\/Getty <\/p>\n

The nature of the charges, his partial confession and leaked pictures of Borg H\u00f8iby posing with banknotes and a pistol have, taken together, shocked Norway.<\/p>\n

More shocks are likely to come with testimony of the three women over rape claims dating back as far as 2018.<\/p>\n

This week, a haggard Prince Haakon went before the press to profess his love for his stepson Marius as an \u201cimportant party of our family\u201d, while confirming that he and his wife will stay away from the trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s clear we think a lot about all those affected in the case,\u201d he said in a muted, trembling voice, hands shaking. To the alleged victims of Marius, he said: \u201cI know many of you are having a hard time right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watching him up close was journalist Jonas J\u00f8rstad, of celebrity magazine Se og H\u00f8r (See and Hear).<\/p>\n

His magazine has led coverage on the scandal and J\u00f8rstad has trailed the 52-year-old Haakon through years of joy and tragedy. But the trembling man before him, taking deep breaths as he struggled to speak, was a very different person.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was not a crown prince delivering a message. It was a deeply affected family man who had difficulty speaking,\u201d J\u00f8rstad says. \u201cThis is not just a trial. It is the most serious burden the royal family has ever faced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Norway has one of Europe\u2019s youngest monarchies, established by referendum in 1905 after the dissolution of the Swedish-Norwegian union, but it draws on one of Europe\u2019s oldest royal houses.<\/p>\n

The House of Gl\u00fccksberg, with roots in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany, has its fingers in most of Europe\u2019s royal family pies: Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Greece, the UK and several German states.<\/p>\n

Founding king Haakon VII, formerly Prince Carl of Denmark, was married to his first cousin Maud, a sister of George V and great-aunt of Queen Elizabeth II<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And when it comes to family drama, the Norwegians have always given their British cousins a run for their money.<\/p>\n

\"Norway'sNorway’s Princess Ingrid Alexandra, front, poses for a family photo next to King Harald V and Queen Sonja and, back row far right, Marius Borg Hoiby to mark her 18th birthday in 2022. Photograph: Lise \u00c5serud\/Getty <\/p>\n

Current King Harald V, now 88, ascended the throne in 1991 but, as a young man, had a nine-year secret relationship with dressmaker Sonja Haraldsen.<\/p>\n

She was a \u2018commoner\u2019 and their relationship caused a scandal when it became public, prompting pushback from the royal family.<\/p>\n

Harald pushed back even harder, reportedly threatening to remain single unless he could marry Sonja, which he did in August 1968.<\/p>\n

Their story, retold in last year\u2019s Amazon<\/a> film The Commoner, pales in comparison to a competing Netflix production, Rebel Royals, featuring Harald and Sonja\u2019s only daughter, Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise.<\/p>\n

A self-described clairvoyant, M\u00e4rtha Louise divorced her first husband in 2017 and, seven years later, married self-styled shaman and sexual healer Durek Verrett.<\/p>\n

The Netflix<\/a> documentary skirts around the many lurid claims about the couple; instead they used the film to accuse the Norwegian royal family of racism for not accepting Verrett, a Black American citizen.<\/p>\n

M\u00e4rtha Louise has since been cut off as an active royal and faces repeated accusations from her family of violating an agreement not to cash in on her royal connections, such as her Netflix show and her own brand of gin.<\/p>\n

While M\u00e4rtha Louise still features on the royal family website, Marius Borg H\u00f8iby never has.<\/p>\n

As Prince Haakon\u2019s stepson, he is part of the royal family but not the royal household. He has with no royal duties and remains outside the line of succession.<\/p>\n

Some Norwegians see the roots of Marius\u2019s Troubles in this tension between his life as a \u2018commoner\u2019 ex-motorbike mechanic with two royal half-siblings Ingrid Alexandra and Sverre Magnus, the younger children of Mette-Marit and Haakon.<\/p>\n

\"PrincePrince Haakon and Princess Mette-Marit address a gala dinner for their daughter Princess Ingrid Alexandra, centre. Photograph: H\u00e5kon Mosvold Larsen\/Getty <\/p>\n

Norwegian journalist Torgeir Pedersen Krokfjord is co-author of a bestselling book on the unfolding scandal: Hvite Striper, Sorte F\u00e5r (White Lines, Black Sheep). He thinks Marius had \u201ca very strange upbringing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s comparable to Prince Harry<\/a> as the \u2018spare\u2019, but even worse,\u201d Krokfjord says. \u201cHis siblings have formal roles and taxpayer salaries and he has nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marius may have charmed the nation as \u201cthe little prince\u201d in 2001, and he has appeared regularly in official royal family portraits since, but the snowballing scandal has seen the palace edge him out of their world \u2013 and the royal narrative.<\/p>\n

Other Norwegians reject this disassociation narrative, suggesting instead the apple doesn\u2019t fall far from the tree.<\/p>\n

On the eve of her wedding in August 2001, still facing headlines that she was \u201cmore Fergie than Diana\u201d, Mette-Marit took drastic action. She held an tearful press conference, acknowledging her wild party years and subsequent struggles as a single mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy youthful rebellion was much stronger than many others, with me living quite a wild life,\u201d she told journalists, a nod to her convicted felon father who divorced her mother to marry a stripper.<\/p>\n

Mette-Marit conceded she had, in the past, \u201coverstepped limits\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe experience came at a cost for me and was something I took a long time to get over,\u201d she said. \u201cI would like to take this opportunity to say that I condemn drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same cannot be said for her son\u2019s father, Morten Borg.<\/p>\n

He grew up in one of Oslo\u2019s most exclusive streets, was a 1990s nightclub regular and, according to a biographer, \u201cno stranger to the police\u201d.<\/p>\n

Borg was arrested in an Oslo apartment early in 1991 during a police raid that secured 70 grams of cocaine, worth \u20ac22,500.<\/p>\n

Later that year he was arrested again with 130 grams of cocaine, leading to a 31-month prison term.<\/p>\n

When he was sent to prison in 1998, again on cocaine possession charges, Marius had just been born.<\/p>\n

Borg, a financial analyst by profession, was reportedly shocked by Mette-Marit\u2019s news she was pregnant as they had been casual friends and never a couple.<\/p>\n

He has kept a lower profile in recent years, appearing in public for occasions such as Marius\u2019s first day at school. Father and son reportedly spent last Christmas together.<\/p>\n

Like his parents in their younger days, Marius has a love of wild parties \u2013 but is in the public eye. Tabloids named his regular blowouts with motorbike gang friends \u201cthe Skaugum festival\u201d, after the royal family estate.<\/p>\n

Krokfjord describes Morten Borg, whom he met once, as \u201ca very charming, nice guy, yet at same time he was one of our first convicted cocaine dealers, a real cocaine pioneer in Norway\u201d.<\/p>\n

His book White Lines, Black Sheep claims the son, Marius Borg H\u00f8iby allegedly had links to a drug cartel in Iran.<\/p>\n

Borg H\u00f8iby and his defence lawyer have dismissed the claim as false, but Krokfjord and co-author \u00d8istein N Monsen stand by their multi-sourced claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet when these concerns reach the royal family they are put in a safe in the hope they\u2019ll go away,\u201d Krokfjord says. \u201cTo some extent they have succeeded with this approach as it is only in the last two years that these things have come into the spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"QueenQueen Sonja, King Harald, Prince Haakon and Princess Mette-Marit attend the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony 2022 in Oslo. Photograph: Rune Hellestad\/Getty <\/p>\n

That spotlight has cast a harsh light on the royal household in the last 18 months. With his parents in poor health, Prince Haakon has attracted considerable sympathy for his balancing act between royal obligations and family loyalty.<\/p>\n

Opinion is less clear about his wife, Mette-Marit, particularly given what might emerge during the trial.<\/p>\n

On the one hand many are sympathetic, seeing a mother struggling with a wayward son. On top of that is her own poor health: chronic pulmonary fibrosis that has worsened and is likely to require a lung transplant in the near future.<\/p>\n

However, when police seized her son\u2019s phone following an allegation he had attacked his girlfriend, the SIM card was missing and it prompted questions around an alleged cover-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were furious when that emerged, but people\u2019s anger mellows with time,\u201d Krokfjord says.<\/p>\n

British-born Craig Aaen-Stockdale moved to Norway in 2012 with his Norwegian wife, took citizenship and now heads Norge som Republikk (Norway as a Republic).<\/p>\n

His organisation, with 700 paying members and 3,000 Facebook followers, campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy. Its campaign has included legal action against the Norwegian royal household: over Princess M\u00e4rtha Louise gin \u2013 for breaking rules on alcohol promotion \u2013 and over a sarcophagus commissioned for King Harald without a public tender process.<\/p>\n

For the large part, Aaen-Stockdale sees support for Norway\u2019s royals as based on sentimentality and apathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly when scandals like this come along do people think, \u2018It\u2019s a bit odd, this arrangement\u2019,\u201d he says, reflected in a 2024 membership surge for his organisation. \u201cFor now the dominant narrative is \u2018Poor King Harald who has to deal with all this chaos around him\u2019. The Marius-as-rotten-apple narrative, which is being heavily pushed here, too, will probably win out.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there is a chance that things could turn out very differently, he thinks, particularly if the trial asks pointed questions about palace-state collaboration \u2013 and the number of blind eyes turned to Borg H\u00f8iby\u2019s criminality because of his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it will come out in court why the police felt the need to tell the royal family in advance they were coming to arrest him,\u201d Aaen-Stockdale says. \u201cFor now, we are trying to keep the focus on the fact that we think the seeds of all this are planted in the system of monarchy itself, that inherited power is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the trial date approaches, Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit have remained silent on the private side of their family drama, saying only in a statement: \u201cOur view has always been that this matter must be dealt with in the legal system. That is where it belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, somewhat cryptically, Prince Haakon said: \u201cIt is good to know that we live in a rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Veteran royal watcher J\u00f8rstad, of Se og H\u00f8r (See and Hear) magazine, says it is clear the scandal has damaged the royal family \u201ceven if it is too early to see the full extent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, the monarchy unquestionably remains strong in Norway, and the royal family continues to enjoy broad support,\u201d he says. \u201cMost of what will emerge during the trial is already known, and it is therefore unlikely that anything will come out that would cause significantly further damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a disastrous run of health scares and scandals, not even its most vocal critics underestimate ongoing public support for the Norwegian monarchy. Some of them are even monarchists themselves \u2013 like Krokfjord, who praises King Harald\u2019s role as an honourable man and unifying figure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI support the monarchy and it has never been our intention to affect it [negatively] in any way,\u201d he says. \u201cOur job is to investigate them and find out information. It is up to others to judge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final judgment against Borg H\u00f8iby is likely in about six weeks and, if convicted, the 29 year-old faces up to 10 years in prison.<\/p>\n

Some 30 years after his mother\u2019s fateful encounter with a prince at a musical festival, her bad seed son is \u2013 in the words of Nick Cave \u2013 nobody\u2019s baby now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Quart musical festival in southern Norway in July 1996, the headliner was Nick Cave and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3468,93,61,60,1868,92584,298,7424,60341,976],"class_list":{"0":"post-272062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-amazon","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-netflix","13":"tag-nick-cave","14":"tag-norway","15":"tag-prince-harry","16":"tag-queen-elizabeth","17":"tag-weekendreview"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}