The palace stresses Marius Borg Høiby is not part of the royal family, and that he is not a public figure. But he is considered a close member of the family, by his stepfather the crown prince who sees him as a son, and by Norway’s much loved King Harald V, 88, who he has known for much of his life as his grandfather.
“It’s a very dangerous moment, because the royal family should be role models,” says Ulf Andre Andersen, who broke the story for celebrity-focused magazine Se og Hør [See and Hear] in early August 2024 when police were called to a woman’s flat in Frogner on the west side of Oslo after reports of a violent incident.
Marius Borg Høiby has admitted some of the lesser offences, and after his arrest admitted physical abuse and destroying objects. The indictment alleges he tore down a chandelier, threw a knife at the wall and shattered a mirror, calling the woman words such as whore.
The four rape charges date from 2018, at his parents’ official residence, the Skaugum estate outside Oslo, to November 2024, after his initial arrest. One of the four, dating back to 2023, involves intercourse while the woman was asleep. The other three also involve sexual assault while the women were incapacitated, which also counts as rape in Norway.
