Marius Borg Høiby: News from the Norwegian “Problem Prince”

On Wednesday she emerged from obscurity again, the mother of the problem child in the Norwegian royal family: Crown Princess Mette-Marit returned from sick leave, which she had taken up at the end of October. According to a press release from the Oslo Court, it was because of her chronic lung disease. That was directly after her flying visit with her husband Haakon to Berlin, where she took part in a ceremony at the Nordic embassies together with the Danish royal couple and Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel of Sweden.

The heir to the throne once again simply smiled away the unpleasant questions about how the family would continue to deal with the upcoming court case for bodily harm against their son Marius.

And that’s how it happened again at the two’s most recent public appearance, at a banquet in their Skaugum residence just outside Oslo. The theme of the evening, which was also hosted by the Norwegian Ministry of Health, was fittingly the mental health of young people.

What the mental health of Mette-Marit’s eldest is doing remains unclear. According to Norwegian media reports, Marius Borg Høiby has still not left to undergo inpatient drug treatment, as he actually announced in August in a public statement after being released from custody. Rather, for now he seems to simply continue his party life as if nothing had happened.

In late summer it became known that Mette-Marit’s son, who comes from a premarital relationship, had physically attacked his girlfriend in her apartment after a party while drunk and drugged and had filed this report. One from the tabloid newspaper caused particular excitement “Se of Hør” printed photo from the crime scene, which showed a knife that the 27-year-old had apparently rammed into a wall of her apartment during the attack on his girlfriend.

The police notified the judicial authorities, who, following standard security protocol at court, informed the crown prince couple’s bodyguard unit of the impending arrest. They also contacted Marius himself. Afterwards, however, the worried mother is said to have immediately driven to his residence, a little house on the Skaugum site, to tidy up and clean up – or to cover up traces, as evil tongues in the Norwegian media immediately suspected.

In addition, Crown Princess Marius drove Marius to a nearby school in consultation with the police so that he would not be arrested on the grounds of the residence. As a result, officers refrained from searching the suspect’s home or other areas in Skaugum. There was a search warrant, but according to police, it only affected his cell phone. But according to Norwegian media, the device was in a condition that made it difficult for police to secure its contents. This special treatment was met with criticism from Norwegians, as was the fact that the pre-trial detention lasted barely 48 hours, despite the seriousness of the allegations. Marius was temporarily released with a multiple assault charge and a restraining order prohibiting him from approaching his latest victim. It recently emerged that similar incidents had occurred in his previous relationships.

In mid-September, Høiby was arrested again at a friend’s holiday home because he had apparently ignored the ban on contact. After a search, officers seized his cell phone, drugs and a rifle.

Meanwhile, Crown Princess Mette-Marit is said to have advised her son to return his firearms license, including weapons, and his driving license. As a precautionary measure, she had already taken her own key to her and her husband Haakon’s home, the Skaugum mansion, from her son, so it is said from those around the palace, so that he would not celebrate wild parties with friends there again while she was away.

But will that be enough to restore the crown prince couple’s reputation as good parents? The voices calling for the two to clearly distance themselves from Marius’ behavior are becoming louder and louder in Norway. But everything that has come out of the mouth of the future King of Norway so far has been a brief statement that it is a serious and challenging situation for all of them as a family. But it is not possible to say much about it publicly while it is an ongoing police investigation.

The scandal surrounding Mette-Marit’s son is also making its way into pop culture. At the end of October, the rapper Marstein released his new album “Freedom in Chains”. The singer is from the group there “Undergrunn” known. On the cover, which briefly adorned countless advertising spaces all over Oslo: Marius in a grunge-like dark hoody, looking provocatively into the camera. The song “3 WISE MEN” from the album contains several lines of text with clear references to the situation “Problem princes”: “I know a guy, you see him in a bar every now and then. No master’s degree, but he has the family MasterCard. No job, but here at the farm everything is paid, … Blue blood on his mother, he does whatever he wants on the weekends, so he met women and stuck the knife in the wall, but despite everything he didn’t draw any conclusions .”

A somewhat crude but to-the-point summary of the current events surrounding Marius, which gives voice to the opinions of younger generations of Norwegians. Since the photo was used without his consent and in a way that damaged his reputation, a court issued an injunction and the album and the advertising for it were taken out of circulation.