Feb. 8, 2026
Mette-Marit, Epstein and Marius Høiby: Norway Royals in Full Multiple Crisis Mode
It’s a brutal week for royal men with too much privilege and not enough purpose. As Prince Andrew is quietly shoved out of Windsor under cover of darkness, Norway’s royal family finds itself engulfed in a scandal that makes Britain’s York mess look familiar. Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, is facing four rape charges and dozens of other allegations, triggering a national reckoning over entitlement, power, and unchecked behaviour. Commentators draw chilling parallels between Andrew and Høiby, arguing that royal indulgence, moral vacuum, and lack of accountability lead to predictable disaster. Meanwhile, fresh reporting details Mette-Marit’s warm and deeply embarrassing correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, prompting public outrage, political condemnation, and a growing debate over whether she can ever become queen. Norway’s famously low-key monarchy is suddenly fighting for its credibility.
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Ah calorogus shark Media, Hello and welcome to Crown and
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Controversy Norway edition. I Am Your Palace Intrigue host Mark Francis.
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In the Telegraph, Eleanor Mulls writes, it's a spectacularly bad
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week for entitled princelings without a purpose, what Prince Harry
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in his memoir, dubbed being the spare. The former Prince
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Andrew mount Batten Windsor had to move out of his
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mansion in Windsor Great Park under cover of darkness after
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yet another ignomy, this time of being photographed looming over
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a prostrate woman. He was reportedly ordered to remove himself
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and his possessions pronto, because the King could no longer
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stand to see tabloid pictures of Andrew smugly pottering around
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Windsor and his range rover and on horseback, while his
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egregious epstein antics continued to unfold in evermore technicolor. I
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suppose King Charles Monarch could at least take some comfort
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from Scandinavia, reminding himself that it could always be worse. Hoiby,
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who is not an official member of Norway's royal family,
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has no royal titles and is constitutionally barred from becoming
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king himself has been charged with four counts of rape
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and thirty six other offenses, ranging from drug transportation to
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domestic abuse and filming the genitals of women without their
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knowledge or consent. If found guilty, he faces up to
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sixteen years in prison. What is it with these people?
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Do they not think the laws that apply to us
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lest im mortals also apply to them? Do they not
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believe that women are people too, not blown up dolls
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to be played with and discarded? Or were Andrew and
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Hoiby so indulged and cosetted by society and their royal
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mothers that they thought they could get away with anything.
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What the actions of both Andrew and Hoibi shows us
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is how privilege and entitlement, unchecked by duty or moral principle,
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leads to disaster. Too many sicker fans and too much
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money leads to a massive ego, and that, combined with
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not enough to do and living in a bubble, leads
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to a sense that anything goes, that normal rules don't apply,
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and unsurprisingly terrible outcomes. Frankly, it all makes me admire
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Prince Harry. At least he is euxorius and involved dad,
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living his own life, making his own money and working
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hard to help injured servicemen, No wonder he wanted to
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escape the bubble of being a spare. In The Independent,
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Katie Rozensky writes Norway's low Ki royals have tended to
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enjoy strong support from their people. Their eighty eight year
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old King Harald, fifth, Europe's oldest monarch, is particularly popular,
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a grandfatherly figure who has been hailed for his down
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to earth persona. But this double blow will surely have
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major repercussions for the family's image in a society that
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has come to expect transparency and honesty from its leaders.
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While fifty two year old Crown Princess Madamemorie's journey into
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Norwegian royalty was not entirely straightforward. In the run up
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to her marriage to Prince Harken, she wasted in the
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presses something of a party girl who'd embraced the country's
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rave scene. The fact that she and Hearken had been
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sharing a flat for a year with Marius, her four
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year old son from a previous relationship, attracted censure from
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the Church of Norway. Just days before their two thousand
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and one wedding, she gave a tearful address to the
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public in which she admitted to living quite a wild
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life and said that she condemned drugs. The newly revealed
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strength of her apparent bond with Epstein, though vastly eclipses
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this past pearl clutching. The Princess, it seems, was in
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regular contact with the financier, who cultivated a sprawling social
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circle of the wealthy and powerful. Between twenty eleven and thirteen,
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several years after Epstein served a jail sentence for procuring
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a girl under the age of eighteen for prostitution. Their
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correspondence is certainly warm, trading book recommendations as well as
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details of holiday plans and social events. The royal describes
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her crazy friend Epstein as such a sweetheart and claims
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that he tickles her brain. Elsewhere, the pair seemed to
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joke about Epstein going wife hunting, with the princess suggesting
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that Paris is good for adultery, but Scandy's a better
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wife material, and in one message she asked him whether
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it's appropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women
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carrying a surfboard for my fifteen year old son's wallpaper.
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Soon after the release of the files, Metamuri put out
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a statement admitting that she showed poor judgment and deeply
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regretted having had any contact with Epstein. Her words, however,
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may not be enough to paper over deepening cracks, shaking
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off any traditional deference to the royals. Norway's Prime Minister,
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Jonas gar Store, released a brief but quietly damning statement
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of his own. I understand why many people have reacted
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strongly to the revelations in the documents. I have two crown.
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Princess Madame Marie as herself acknowledged that she has exercised
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poor judgment, and I can agree with her. A comment
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piece in one of Norway's biggest newspapers asked, can Meta
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Marie become queen after this? The firestorm surrounding Meta Marie
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and her son has taken some of the heat off
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another royal row, the high profile relationship between her sister
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in law, Princess Martha Luise and Direct Verrett, a self
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proclaimed shaman from San Francisco who has also claimed to
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be the reincarnation of an Egyptian pharaoh. And we cover
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that story in this feed as season one. If you
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want just go back and take a listen, it's a doozy,
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Razenski concludes, it seems inevitable that the family's once healthy
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approval ratings may take something of a nosedive. Indeed, the
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Republican Association Norway as a Republic has reported that its
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membership has more than tripled over the past two years.
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More Crown controversy in just a moment. Royal expert Amanda
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Matta told Fox News, since this is Meta Marie's second
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time apologizing for her relationship with Epstein, it will now
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be ten times harder to file this away as an
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incidental brush with a bad guy. The newly released emails,
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more extensive than what the public previously understood, opened many
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many channels to question the Crown Princess's judgment. Why did
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she keep contact going, Why didn't she understand more quickly
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what Epstein was and that he was not the sort
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of person she would want to be publicly associated with.
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They previously stated that mm's last contact with je was
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in twenty thirteen, and we now see that it was
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actually twenty fourteen. The public now knows that they weren't
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told the whole truth the first time, and Palnce officials
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are painting this as a mistake or accident, but trust
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is being eroded in the process, even if there was
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no wrongdoing. That will leave a bad taste in people's mouths.
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Norwegian authorities have opened a corruption investigation into former Prime
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Minister Thorben Jogland following revelations about his partlings to Jeffrey Epstein.
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The Norwegian Economic Crime Investigation Service confirmed on Thursday that
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it is examining whether Yogland received gifts, travel or loans
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connected to his former public roles. Joglin served as Norway's
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Prime Minister between ninety six and ninety seven. And there
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you have it. Just a reminder that we are running
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this Crown and Controversy Norway series separate to Palace Intrigues,
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regular daily British Royal updates, and you can get both
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of those feeds every day, plus specials on the weekend.
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I'm Mark Francis my thanks to John McDermott. This is
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Crown and Controversy Norway conturns
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