The funeral of King Harald of Norway was meant to unite the country in mourning. Instead, one man walking beside the coffin drew nearly as much attention as the late monarch and the new king, Haakon. That man was Marius Borg Høiby, the eldest son of the new queen and a man King Harald had accepted as his own grandson. Marius had recently been sentenced to four years in prison, but he was not in a cell.
He was under house arrest, wearing an electronic ankle monitor, and he had been granted permission to take part in the royal farewell ceremonies. The public reaction was immediate and fierce. The Norwegian Association for Prisoners’ Rights reported widespread discontent among people who were currently serving sentences. Some inmates said they had not even been allowed to attend their own parents’ funerals.
Marius, by contrast, had been permitted to say goodbye to Harald before his death and then to participate in several official ceremonies. The question that followed was unavoidable: did the same rules apply to everyone, or did different rules apply to members of the royal family? The story of how Marius Borg Høiby became the monarchy’s biggest problem began long before the funeral. It started in Oslo in August 2024, when police were called to the apartment of a woman with whom Marius had been close.
Inside, investigators found broken belongings, a fallen chandelier, and signs of physical assault on the woman’s body. She later acknowledged that she had mental health problems and had struggled with addiction for many years, but the investigation pressed on, and the charges became more serious. In the end, the court sentenced him to four years in prison. The sentence was appealed, however, and Marius remained under house arrest at the royal residence of Skaugum rather than in a prison.
The controversy did not stop with his appearance at the funeral. A new scandal erupted around Marius, this time on a theatrical stage. The day after Harald’s death, a private performance of the play “The Sun” took place in Norway, and many people immediately saw parallels with Marius and the royal family. The central character is the king’s bodyguard, a woman who spent years close to the family, watching what unfolded around a young man.
The bodyguard has an adult son of her own who sinks deeper into addiction and destructive behavior while his mother continues to try to excuse him and save him. The audience immediately saw clear parallels with the relationship between Queen Mette-Marit and Marius. King Harald himself appears twice in the play as an elderly king, seen on stage only one day after his real death. The timing could hardly have been more controversial.
The country was still in mourning, yet public interest only grew. The play continued to draw full houses, and tickets were completely sold out. But the debate over Marius’s presence at the funeral quickly spread beyond Norway. Foreign press opinion was divided.
Some defended Marius’s right to say goodbye to the man he had considered his grandfather. Others argued that he could have done so without participating publicly in the ceremonies. Then the possibility that Donald Trump might attend unexpectedly added another twist to the story. A Norwegian newspaper asked Douglas, a former United States Secret Service officer, what would have changed if Trump had come to the farewell ceremonies.
According to the experts, Marius’s presence might have required extra security coordination between the American and Norwegian sides. Marius Borg Høiby’s story began on January 13, 1997. His parents, Mette-Marit and Morten Borg, were not in a relationship. Their connection had been casual.
Both had complicated pasts, and their lives revolved around nightclubs, parties, and groups of young friends. A few months after they met, Marius’s father was sent to prison, and the 24-year-old Mette-Marit had to raise her child alone. She barely made ends meet and worked as a waitress in nightclubs and restaurants. In 1999, Mette-Marit met Norway’s crown prince, Haakon, at a music festival.
The prince was drawn to how natural and open she was. That meeting marked the beginning of their romance. The fact that the future royal bride already had a child from another man caused displeasure both within the royal family and across Norwegian society. But love ultimately prevailed, and Haakon married Mette-Marit.
Marius did not receive a royal title, but he became part of the family. Prince Haakon accepted Marius as his own. For the little boy, a new life began, filled with royal protocol, ceremonies, and constant attention from the press. The charming blond child soon won the hearts of the entire country.
Before long, almost no one seemed to remember that the prince’s marriage to a commoner with a child had once caused concern. With each passing year, the attention on Haakon and Mette-Marit’s family only grew. In 2004, their daughter, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, was born, expected to become queen of Norway in the future. In 2005, they had another child, Prince Magnus.
Marius became the older brother and always showed touching care for the younger children. Photographs of them at public events often appeared in the press and delighted Norwegians. But within the royal family, Marius found himself caught between two worlds. He could no longer live as a completely ordinary person, yet he had no official duties to the state.
He tried many different paths: an internship at a luxury car dealership, a few months studying business in the United States, a background role in a Norwegian television series, and designing leather jackets under his own label, MBH. Over time, he became a true sex symbol and a bad boy. Marius embraced a luxurious lifestyle. His days were filled with surfing, riding motorcycles, and having fun online.
He regularly showed off his tattoos and party photos, posted shirtless selfies, and frequently changed girlfriends. Over time, this lifestyle began to draw criticism. The sweet, modest little boy had been replaced by a defiant young man who, many were convinced, was setting entirely the wrong example for young people. As he grew older, Marius appeared less frequently at official royal events.
For a time, he moved to London and missed the royal family’s annual photo sessions, but his public image could not be separated from the royal family. Details of parties held at the royal residence of Skaugum leaked to the press. Videos appeared showing Marius’s friends riding Segways through the halls of the residence among scattered belongings. Later came a scandal involving missing pieces of the royal family’s silverware, which someone had tried to have sold through an auction house.
The palace gave no detailed comment, but public questions about the royal stepson and his lifestyle continued to build. Then came the scandal that made all previous stories look like childish mischief. Marius was accused of assaulting a woman. A major criminal investigation began.
Additional incidents emerged, and the case went to court. In the end, he was sentenced to four years in prison. That same man, only a few months later, appeared beside Harald’s coffin and provoked such a furious reaction. All of this happened during a particularly difficult period for his mother.
Queen Mette-Marit underwent a lung transplant during the summer, and complications after the operation prevented her from attending Haakon’s oath-taking ceremony. At the same time, her eldest son remained at the center of one of the royal family’s most serious public crises. Now the story also directly affected his younger sister. Ingrid Alexandra became crown princess and future queen of Norway, and her relationship with Marius inevitably cast a shadow over her reputation.
Ingrid has repeatedly spoken about how close she is to her older brother, acknowledged how difficult the situation has been for her, and even visited him while he was in custody together with her younger brother, Prince Magnus. But visiting a brother behind closed doors is one thing. Having him appear publicly before the entire country is another. That is the central debate around Marius: where is the line between supporting a loved one and granting special treatment to family?
For a monarchy already navigating grief, illness, and scandal, the answer remained unresolved.