Victims of violence react to Hoiby as King Harald’s pallbearer
Victims of violence are reacting after Mette-Marit's son Marius Borg Hoiby carried King Harald's coffin in a publicly broadcast ceremony. King Harald was known to include everyone, but many now feel excluded from the national mourning period following his death.
September 1, 2026
King Harald's coffin, image from broadcast on NRK
Marius Borg Hoiby is in custody
On 15 June this year, Marius Borg Hoiby was sentenced to four years in prison on 36 of 40 counts, including two rapes, one of them at Skaugum, domestic violence and drug offences. The verdict has been appealed.
Hoiby is currently being held in custody in a residence on the royal estate of Skaugum. He was granted custody with an electronic ankle tag after having been in prison since 2 February. Hoiby arrived at Skaugum on 14 July, the same day it was announced that Mette-Marit had been discharged from Rikshospitalet following a lung transplant.
According to a statement from (Crown Prince) King Haakon in January this year, Marius Borg Hoiby is not part of the Royal House, but of the royal family.
The Royal House is normalising substance abuse, violence and drug crime
Many in Norway feel that the Royal House is helping to normalise substance abuse, violence, sexual assault and drug crime. Beyond Marius, this relates to Mette-Marit's conduct and her contact with Jeffrey Epstein, convicted of paedophilia. They think that this reflects attitudes within the royal family that are incompatible with the values the Royal House is meant to represent.
Several opinion polls have shown that a majority of the Norwegian public does not want Mette-Marit as queen. The most recent, published by Nettavisen in May, showed that only 37.1 per cent consider Mette-Marit suited to be queen, while 43.3 per cent consider her unsuited. The debate was given space in the mass media until Mette-Marit was placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant at the beginning of June; since then they have kept a lid on it.
On social media, however, the debate has reached new heights. In foreign media, reporting on King Harald's death and the mourning period has been largely dominated by the controversies surrounding Mette-Marit and Marius Borg Hoiby. This upsets many Norwegians because the Royal House is not representing Norway in a dignified manner.
Victims of violence feel excluded
After Marius Borg Hoiby served as a pallbearer in a public television broadcast yesterday, this has provoked reactions and painful memories among victims of violence. It was in King Harald's spirit to include everyone, but it is not known whether he wanted Hoiby as a pallbearer in a public setting.
Several victims of violence whom Society and Politics has been in contact with believe this excludes them from the national mourning period — that the Royal House is thereby overlooking victims of violence and failing to include them in the public mourning for King Harald. The line should be drawn precisely where the Royal House itself has set it, between the royal family's private life and the public stage.
One in ten women in Norway is affected by domestic violence, and both substance abuse and rape are often involved — this is a major social problem with serious consequences. These elements are included in the indictment against Hoiby. Regardless of whether the verdict against him stands, the women the charges concern will be believed.
King Harald defended Mette-Marit's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein on the grounds that she had not done anything criminal, thereby setting the Royal House's line at criminality. We are now in a situation where a member of the royal family is being held in custody on a royal estate, and this is a problem for the monarchy irrespective of a conviction.
This is reflected in the coverage in foreign media, where Norway's reputation is being damaged.