NEWS ANALYSIS: Flags few, canons roared at noon and the royal yacht was decorated on Tuesday, but it couldn\u2019t have been a very happy 52nd birthday for Norway\u2019s Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Her son Marius was slapped just the day before with a 32-count indictment including four rapes and numerous charges of other violence against women, throwing the Norwegian royal family back into crisis mode.<\/strong><\/p>\n The indictment against 28-year-old Marius Borg H\u00f8iby,<\/strong> the crown princess\u2019 son from a relationship before she met Crown Prince Haakon, was even worse than expected. Police had forwarded 23 violations of the law<\/a> to state prosecutors for review earlier this summer, including three alleged rapes. The indictment handed down on Monday was much more serious and extensive: Four rapes, several other violent assaults on former female partners, vandalism, disturbing the peace, making threats, failing to comply with police orders, reckless driving, violation of a restraining order and even filming of several women\u2019s genitals while they slept. Much of the police evidence, in the form of photos and videos, was collected from H\u00f8iby\u2019s own telephone.<\/p>\n H\u00f8iby has earlier admitted to a violent episode at a former girlfriend\u2019s apartment in Oslo<\/a> last August, and to dependency on drugs and alcohol. He still denies guilt on many of the other charges<\/a>, including the rapes, and has not been taken back into custody. His defense attorneys call the indictment \u201cserious,\u201d claim H\u00f8iby has cooperated with police and was taking the indictment itself seriously. He faces a six-week-long trial that\u2019s likely to start in January, and as much as 10 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.<\/p>\n \u201cViolence in close relationships is extremely serious,\u201d<\/strong> Norway\u2019s State Prosecutor Sturla Henriksb\u00f8 said after unveiling the indictment at a press conference in Oslo on Monday afternoon. \u201cWe know how living under such a regime can destroy lives.\u201d He told newspaper Aftenposten<\/em> that it \u201ccan create trauma that follows a person for the rest of their lives. It\u2019s the same with rape, so this is an extremely serious indictment.\u201d<\/p>\n It describes how one of H\u00f8iby\u2019s alleged victims, former live-in partner Nora Haukland, was mishandled from the summer of 2022 to the fall of 2023 in Oslo, Asker (an Oslo suburb where the crown couple\u2019s estate is located) Alta (Northern Norway), Barbados and other places. H\u00f8iby is accused of punching her in the face with a clenched fist, trying to choke her, and kicking her, in addition to \u201cthreatening behaviour and other offenses.\u201d H\u00f8iby is further accused of trying to control which friends Haukland could meet, or pressuring her into declining various jobs.<\/p>\n Henriksb\u00f8 insisted that H\u00f8iby, who\u2019s been a member of the Royal Family since his mother married Crown Prince Haakon when he was just three years old, won\u2019t be handled \u201cany milder or any tougher\u201d than others. His family relations have, Henriksb\u00f8 acknowledged, prompted huge public interest in the case, \u201cbut will not have any effect on the indictment or eventual punishment.\u201d<\/p>\n Several of the women involved, including one of their mothers, have earlier said they took up H\u00f8iby\u2019s violent behaviour and drug use with his mother and Crown Prince Haakon, apparently to no avail. They royal couple have since called the case against Crown Princess Mette-Marit\u2019s son \u201cdifficult\u201d and \u201cchallenging\u201d as have King Harald and Queen Sonja<\/a>, but left it to the police, prosecutors and defense attorneys involved to sort it out. Staff at the Royal Palace had no further comment on the indictment, saying it was now \u201cup to the courts to handle this case and reach a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n On Tuesday<\/strong> Crown Prince Haakon was surrounded by reporters during an appearance at an industrial conference in Trondheim. He still wouldn\u2019t comment on his step-son\u2019s indictment in any detail. \u201cNow it\u2019s of course been clarified what\u2019s in the indictment, so now it will proceed to the courts to decide how this will turn out in the end,\u201d the crown prince told reporters. \u201cEveryone involved in this case thinks it\u2019s challenging and difficult.\u201d He tried to keep smiling, saying that he and other family members must now just continue to carry on with their duties \u201cin the best possible way.\u201d<\/p>\n The crown prince declined to answer other questions, including one in which he was asked whether he and Crown Prince Mette-Marit had been told about her son\u2019s violent behaviour. \u201cWhen it comes to the case itself, I think there are others who are better suited to answer questions about it,\u201d he said, before walking away.<\/p>\n Questions are also flying,<\/strong> meanwhile, among commentators, royal experts and many others over what went wrong with H\u00f8iby and why his violence wasn\u2019t addressed. \u201cThe indictment against Marius Borg H\u00f8iby paints a picture of systematic assaults,\u201d wrote Eva Grinde in newspaper Dagens N\u00e6ringsliv (DN)<\/em> on Tuesday, even \u201ca serial offender.\u201d One of his latest alleged assaults occurred in November 2024, she noted, not long after he was first arrested in August.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what can the royals say and do?\u201d Grinde wrote. \u201cThey\u2019re clearly in a family crisis, but not just that. This family is not like all others. The royals make up our constitutional heads of government and should function.\u201d Several other commentators are once again wondering whether Norway\u2019s monarchy will survive<\/a> this crisis that affects far more than the royal family itself.<\/p>\n Grinde, like many others, noted how H\u00f8iby \u201chas been without a job for long periods\u201d and \u201clives indirectly off the crown couple\u2019s income that\u2019s financed by the taxpayers. We can soon have a queen whose son is sitting in jail.\u201d Grinde thinks Norwegians\u2019 attachment or devotion to the monarchy \u201cwill depend on whether Mette-Marit and Haakon as a royal couple will eventually be able to put words on this crisis.\u201d Mette-Marit in particular was fiercely defensive of her children while they were growing up, constantly trying to control press coverage and shield them,<\/a> especially Marius, from the media glare, even when they sought it themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n H\u00f8iby himself has admitted<\/strong> to drug and alcohol use, and was believed to have been in rehab, but there no answers over any results. Some of his earlier girlfriends and alleged victims have voiced anger in recent months that H\u00f8iby has continued to party and travel since his arrests last autumn, to destinations including Cannes and, reports magazine Se og H\u00f8r<\/em>, most recently Portugal with Crown Prince Haakon and his half-brother Prince Sverre Magnus. H\u00f8iby\u2019s diplomatic passport was reportedly revoked earlier this year, but he still has a regular passport. Aftenposten<\/em> reported that when his indictment was being handed down on Monday, he was seen riding off on a motorcycle from an apartment in Oslo\u2019s Frogner district, where he\u2019s now believed to be living.<\/p>\n The royal family\u2019s greatest challenge will come in January, when H\u00f8iby\u2019s trial begins. It remained unclear whether other members of the royal family will be called in to testify. Family members often are in other cases of domestic violence.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsinenglish.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_6957-scaled-e1755611752208.jpg\")
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