Norwegian police said on Tuesday that the 27-year-old son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been arrested on suspicion of rape.
Marius Borg Høiby was detained in a car near Skaugum, the official residence of Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, in the suburbs of Oslo, and taken to a police station late in the evening of November 18. He was charged over an incident that occurred earlier in the year and which police began investigating on November 6. Oslo police confirmed the arrest.
The son of the Princess of Norway is charged with “committing sexual intercourse with a person who is unconscious or otherwise unable to resist.” He could face up to ten years in prison.
According to Norwegian state publication NRK, at the time of his arrest, a girl who was a victim in another case against him, a knife attack in the summer of this year, was in the car with him. The court forbade Høiby to have any contact with her. In September, he was already arrested for violating the ban – he contacted her from a hidden phone number, but did not admit it.
The victim’s lawyer, Hege Salomon, said his client was a 20-year-old girl who did not know Høiby before the incident. He added that she was not the one who filed the rape report with the police. Investigators have already questioned the girl.
The police are now choosing a preventive measure for Høiby. The royal family has not yet commented on the allegations. The young man’s stepfather, Crown Prince Haakon of Norway, is currently in Jamaica as a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador and will return home on Wednesday.
In addition to the unidentified 20-year-old girl and his fiancée Rebecca Helberg Arntsen (police have not confirmed that she was the one injured in the August attack), three other people have made accusations against Høiby. Model Juliana Sneckestad, 29, and model Nora Haukeland, 26, who were in relationships with the crown princess’ son in 2018-2022 and 2022-2023 respectively, accused him of abuse. Both have been questioned and have been recognised as victims.
Also under investigation is a death threat that Høiby sent on social media to an unidentified 20-year-old young man. The crown princess’s son is thus implicated in five episodes.
