TLDR
Norway’s royal family is confronting a painful public reckoning after Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s eldest child, Marius Borg Hiby, was convicted of rape and sentenced to four years in prison.
The son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit has gone from unofficial royal fixture to convicted offender. An Oslo court found 29-year-old Marius Borg Hiby guilty of two counts of rape after a six-week trial that examined years of allegations involving violence, drugs, and sexual misconduct.
Hiby was also convicted of assaulting a former girlfriend, issuing threats, and multiple traffic offenses. He was acquitted on two other rape charges. Prosecutors had alleged that he sexually assaulted four women between 2018 and 2024, targeting victims who were asleep or otherwise unable to resist.
The verdict followed a sprawling case built around 40 separate charges, from alleged rapes and assaults to breaches of restraining orders, drug offenses, and driving violations. One restraining-order count was ultimately overturned. The court was told investigators had gathered more than 800 messages and a series of self-recorded sexual videos as part of the evidence.
One of the alleged rapes was said to have taken place in the basement of the Crown Prince family’s home, a detail that pulled the private anguish of the women involved directly into the symbolic heart of the monarchy. Hiby denied the most serious accusations but admitted to some lesser offenses. He was not physically present for the verdict and instead appeared via video link.
For Norwegians who watched him grow up in royal photo calls, the conviction marks a stark fall. Hiby has never held a royal title and does not carry out official duties, yet he has long been woven into the public image of the House of Glucksburg. His mother married Crown Prince Haakon when he was a small child, and he became a familiar, informal part of the modern, blended-family narrative that helped define the monarchy’s updated image in the 2000s.
The timing could scarcely be more painful for Crown Princess Mette-Marit. She lives with pulmonary fibrosis, a serious lung condition that restricts breathing, and has been placed on Norway’s national waiting list for a lung transplant. In recent weeks, an Oslo court initially approved a temporary release from custody so Hiby could spend time with her. Prosecutors appealed, and a higher court reversed that decision, keeping him behind bars until the verdict.
The case lands on a royal house already navigating uncomfortable scrutiny. Mette-Marit’s past contact with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein returned to headlines after documents highlighted continued communication with him even after his 2008 conviction. At the same time, another branch of the family is courting attention of a very different kind, as Princess Martha Louise and her spiritual guide husband, Durek Verrett, prepare for a second reality TV project.
Inside the palace walls, this is a family crisis. Outside, it is a test of how a modern constitutional monarchy separates the actions of an adult relative from the institution’s integrity, while the women at the center of the criminal case and a seriously ill crown princess carry the most personal consequences.
How should royal families respond when someone in their inner circle faces criminal conviction? Share your thoughts on accountability, privacy, and the future of the Norwegian monarchy.
