Marius Borg Hoiby, one of the sons of the Crown Princess of Norway, has been sentenced to four years in prison for rape. The 29-year-old was found guilty of two of the four cases of sexual assault he was accused of.
Convicted of rape
The sentence also includes repeated violence against a former partner, threats and traffic violations. Born from a relationship prior to the marriage of his now seriously ill mother Mette-Marit to Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, Hoiby was accused of 40 crimes. One of the two rapes for which Hoiby was convicted occurred in 2018 at the royal residence in Skaugum. The affair has tarnished the image of the monarchy and Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son, who does not hold any official position nor has a stable profession, has contested the most serious accusations.
For unspecified health reasons, Hoiby, in pre-trial detention since the beginning of February, was not physically present at the reading of the sentence, which he followed via videoconference from his cell. The prosecution had requested a sentence of seven years and seven months in prison. The defense, for its part, had asked for acquittal on the rape charge and a prison sentence of one and a half years for the other crimes.
The trial in Norway
The trial, which took place from February 3 to March 19, revealed the life of excess of the young man, who grew up in the spotlight at the age of three due to the relationship between Mette-Marit and Prince Haakon, second son and only son of King Harald V of Norway and Queen Sonja. “I am known primarily as my mother’s son, for no other reason. So I have always had a very strong need for approval – he declared on the second day of the trial -. And this has translated into a lot sex, lots of drugs and lots of alcohol.” The rapes he is accused of occurred between 2018 and 2024, after parties during which Høiby took alcohol and drugs. Each time, the consensual sexual intercourse would be followed by other illicit acts with the unconscious young women.
The debate focused precisely on the state of consciousness of the victims and what Høiby was aware of at the time of the events. In his final speech, prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø described a defendant “who believes he can get away with anything”. Despite his confusing explanations and memory lapses, Høiby insisted that he was not “in the habit of having sex with sleeping women” and denounced media pressure which he said had turned him into “a monster, the target of the hatred of all of Norway”.
The attack on his partner
The case broke out on August 4, 2024, when Høiby was arrested on charges of assaulting his partner the previous night in a residential neighborhood of Oslo. The press then published a photo of a knife stuck in a wall and a broken chandelier on the floor. Another woman, influencer Nora Haukland, later said she had also suffered physical and psychological abuse. At the trial, Høiby admitted that jealousy could make him lose control. It was by analyzing his phones and computers that investigators found videos documenting what they believe to be rapes.
The case has embarrassed the Norwegian monarchy and contributed to weakening public support, which nevertheless remains relatively high. The scandal adds to others, in particular the recent revelations about the extensive correspondence between Mette-Marit and Jeffrey Epstein between 2011 and 2014, a period in which the American financier had already been convicted of exploitation of child prostitution. Suffering from an incurable lung disease, the fifty-two-year-old princess has seen her health conditions deteriorate significantly in recent months, to the point that doctors have placed her on the waiting list for a delicate transplant