A rape trial and Epstein links: New king inherits scandal-plagued throne

Analysis: Haakon VIII, the new king of Norway, is facing a difficult period of succession in which he will need to rebuild trust in a monarchy beset with scandal.

The 53-year-old became king on Friday when his father Harald V died aged 89 following a blood disorder and infection, ending a 35-year reign as Europe’s oldest-reigning monarch.

The newly proclaimed King Haakon VIII, and his immediate heir Crown Princess Ingrid, appeared together at an extraordinary meeting of the council of state at the Royal Palace in Oslo, just five hours after Harald’s death.

Haakon, wearing black military regalia, and his daughter dressed in a sombre suit, met with government ministers in what was their first joint official duty since the accession.

On Tuesday, the new king will take the oath of allegiance at the Storting (parliament) promising to govern Norway in line with its constitution and laws.

The coming weeks and months will test Haakon, who comes to the throne after a turbulent few years that has pushed Norway’s monarchy to its limits, plagued by health challenges and scandals.

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His wife, the now Queen Mette-Marit, was exposed to have had a past friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and her son Marius Borg Høiby was convicted of rape and assault in June.

Haakon’s sister, Princess Märtha Louise, has long been a controversial figure for her alternative life choices and business activities, which lead to her stepping back from public duties.

Her marriage to an American self-professed healer and shaman in 2024 brought renewed scrutiny to the royal house when they sold the wedding rights to Netflix, sparking calls for the late king to strip his daughter of her titles.

The new king inherits a monarchy arguably at its weakest chapter in modern history, as Norwegians farewell Harald who was widely regarded as the “grandfather” of his country.

The late Harald, who was the first king born in Norway since the 14th century, was beloved by his people. In death, he is being remembered as a reformer who modernised the monarchy and one who defied his own critics by doing things his way when he broke with tradition to marry a commoner, his wife Queen Sonja.

The couple would have celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary on August 29, which ended up being the day after his death.

Harald was a unifying figure during some of Norway’s darkest moments, including when eight people were murdered in a car bomb before a further 69 others were shot dead, many of them teenagers, by neo-Nazi Anders Breivik in July 2011.

The king’s televised address the following day, and speech weeks later, cemented Harald’s place in the hearts of Norwegians.

Holding back tears, yet with his voice breaking with emotion, he said: “As king of this nation, I feel for each and every one of you”.

And in 2016, he endeared himself to a new generation by breaking new ground again, voicing his support for those of different races, religions and sexual orientation.

He boldly stated Norwegians were “girls who love girls, boys who love boys, and girls and boys who love each other”, adding that they came from “Afghanistan, Pakistan and Poland, from Sweden, Somalia and Syria” and believed in “God, Allah, the Universe and nothing”.

A popular king, Harald held an approval rating of nine out of 10 and he managed to weather the controversies surrounding other members of his family.

He was “universally beloved by the people,” Norwegian historian and author Trond Norén Isaksen told nine.com.au in June.

Affection for the monarch remained strong, even when support for the Norwegian monarchy declined. Having sat around 70 per cent late last year, in February it plunged to 60 per cent, the lowest ever figure, because of the issues facing its key members.

Epstein’s web had infiltrated Norway’s royal family and at the centre of the disturbing revelations was Mette-Marit, the country’s new queen.

Queen Mette-Marit’s Epstein’s links

Mette-Marit’s road to royalty was an unlikely one. A commoner and a single mother, she married Norway’s heir in 2001 (they celebrated their 25th anniversary last week). But in the lead up to the wedding, she issued a tearful apology as outrage over her relationship with the future king reached fever pitch.

“My youth rebellion was much stronger than many others,” Mette-Marit said.

“That resulted in me living quite a wild life. We overstepped the limits. It was a costly experience for me, that I took a long time to get over.

“I would like to take this opportunity to say that I condemn drugs,” she said, before adding: “I cannot make these choices again, even though I would wish I could”.

Mette-Marit was soon embraced by Norwegians after committing herself to her royal work, championing humanitarian causes and the arts.

But her past friendship with Epstein has brought renewed scrutiny on the now-queen and shame on the royal house.

Documents released by the US Justice Department in late 2025 suggested Mette-Marit had exchanged more than 100 cordial emails and texts with Epstein while fully aware he had been jailed for sex offences against an underage girl in 2008.

Correspondence between Mette-Marit and Epstein began in 2011 and lasted until 2014, revealing she had a closer relationship with the disgraced financier than she has previously let on.

The files also revealed Mette-Marit had spent four days at Epstein’s house in Palm Beach in Miami in January 2013. But he was not present at the time.

In February, a poll by TV2 found 47.6 per cent of Norwegians believed Mette-Marit was unsuitable for the role of queen.

The then-crown princess apologised twice, both to the public as well as to the late king and Queen Sonja directly. She described her contact with Epstein as having shown “poor judgement”, admitting it was “simply embarrassing”.

In a television interview in March, Mette-Marit addressed the revelations directly, with Haakon by her side.

“Of course, I wish I had never met him,” she said of Epstein.

“It is incredibly important for me to take responsibility for not checking his background more carefully. And to take responsibility for being so manipulated and deceived as I was.”

Following the interview, an opinion poll found that 68 per cent of Norwegians did not believe Mette-Maarit gave sufficient answers to the questions about Epstein.

Both polls had worrying implications for her husband’s future reign.

“The Epstein revelations, and the fact that she wasn’t entirely truthful when she was first asked about her Epstein links in 2019, have caused much disappointment and anger,” Isaksen said.

The extent of Mette-Marit’s Epstein’s connections came to light around the same time that Marius Borg Høiby, her son from a relationship before she married into the royal family, went on trial for rape, assault and other serious charges.

The seven-week criminal trial would cast a dark shadow over Norway’s royal house, leading some to suggest it was the beginning of the end for the monarchy.

In the lead up to the trial late last year, royal correspondent from Norway’s national broadcaster NRK Kristi Marie Skrede told nine.com.au that questions had been raised by some commentators about the monarchy’s future.

“Some people say this is the beginning of the end,” Skrede said. “There are people saying King Harald should be the last king.”

Marius Borg Høiby’s rape conviction

In June Høiby was jailed for four years after he was convicted of raping two women but acquitted of two other rapes. The 29-year-old was also convicted of abusing an ex-girlfriend and of causing serious bodily harm to another partner, along with drugs and traffic offences.

His lawyers have appealed the verdict and the case will be retried, in full, later this year or next.

Høiby is now serving his sentence under house arrest at Skaugum, the royal family’s private residence outside of Oslo, wearing an ankle monitor.

While he has never held royal titles or an official role, Høiby grew up as part of the royal family and attended many events with the late king, and former crown prince family. In 2017, Høiby stepped back from public life after struggling to establish a role for himself, having been part of the royal family but without a title.

He soon found himself in trouble with the law and later spoke about his mental health issues and battles with alcohol and drugs. When Høiby was arrested in August 2024 he became the first member of Norway’s royal family to be charged with a crime.

His arrest, the seven-week trial and sentence, plunged the royal house into a cycle of negative headlines and brought unwelcome stress on the late king and Høiby’s mother, whose health had significantly deteriorated in late 2025.

Mette-Marit and his stepfather, the now-king, did not attend court as the royal family attempted to maintain its distance from the spectacle. Days before the trial, Haakon affirmed his support for “all the parties involved” including the victims and Høiby.

On the second day of his trial, Høiby told the court: “I am known for being Mamma’s son. Nothing else.”

Høiby’s trial risked tarnishing the latter years of the king’s reign and the headlines covering every disturbing moment of the case damaged the royal family’s reputation both in Norway and globally.

“The trial of Marius Borg Høiby has made some people question the [then] crown princess’ parental skills and also reminded people of her own wild youth,” Isaksen said.

Despite his conviction and the scandal the case brought, Høiby has not been cast out by King Haakon or the rest of his family.

He was photographed visiting King Harald’s hospital bedside with his mother and stepfather hours before the monarch died. Høiby was also inside the family motorcade as it made its way into the royal palace following the king’s coffin.

The disgrace and outrage over Mette-Marit’s connections with Epstein, and the criminal conviction of her son, threatened to permanently discredit Norway’s next queen.

However, public anger at her quickly turned to an overwhelming outpouring of support when the Royal House announced Mette-Marit had been put on the waiting list for a lung transplant.

She was “desperately ill, indeed fighting for her life,” Isaksen said, “which has, of course, given her much sympathy”.

The queen’s life-saving lung transplant

The then-crown princess underwent a lung transplant at the National Hospital in early June, eight years after she was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis − a rare condition that causes scarring in the lungs and makes breathing difficult.

Recently, Mette-Marit had begun wearing an oxygen tube on the rare occasions she was seen in public.

A transplant, doctors said, was her only chance at survival, and they had given her just two years, maximum, if she didn’t have the surgery.

Mette-Marit and Haakon’s eldest daughter - and now heir - Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, rushed back from Australia, where she was living as a student of Sydney University. Mette-Marit received the transplant days later.

The recovery process is expected to take a year because of the serious risk of infection and the body rejecting the transplant. As a result, Mette-Marit was not expected to carry out any official duties during that time.

The accession of her husband as King Haakon VIII may change the now queen’s plans, with caution. She was seen outside the royal palace on Saturday, looking at the sea of floral tributes left to her late father-in-law.

King Haakon’s eldest sister, the polarising Princess Märtha Louise, has also remained close to her family’s side in recent weeks.

She and her husband Shaman Durek kept vigil at the hospital, proving familial bonds were stronger than any of the reputational damage they may have brought to Harald’s final years.

The princess and the shaman

Britain has Prince Harry and Meghan and Norway has Princess Märtha Louise and Shaman Durek.

In 2024, the late king’s eldest daughter married the American healer Shaman Durek Verrett and a year later they were accused of exploiting their royal connections in the 2025 Netflix documentary Rebel Royals, renewing calls for the princess to be stripped of her titles. 

Despite not having a formal royal role since November 2022, Princess Märtha Louise’s commercial endeavours have seen her earn the wrath of the royal house and public.

The palace issued a scathing statement claiming the documentary was “a breach of the agreement” made following the princess’ royal exit when she was forbidden from using her royal titles in any business ventures. 

The film also included claims from Shaman Durek that the late king and his wife, as well as the then-crown prince, were blind to the racism he experienced when he started dating Märtha Louise. Shaman Durek later issued a clarification on Instagram, insisting he loved “my father-in-law and my mother-in-law deeply”.

Last week, Shaman Durek underwent a kidney transplant in the same hospital where the late king was being treated.

Skrede said Märtha Louise’s involvement in the Netflix series left her parents “really sad...they were devastated”.

“Many commentators, many newspapers in Norway have pointed out that she’s stabbing her father in the back,” Skrede said.

“She is really letting her family down, because she has promised not to participate in productions like this.”

King Harald repeatedly refused to strip his eldest daughter of her royal titles and since his death, the royal house has reaffirmed her place within its ranks.

She is now third in the line of succession and features on the palace’s website; her biography is next to Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s younger brother, Prince Sverre Magnus who will perform royal duties when needed but will not become a full-time working royal.

Skrede had previously predicted that while Harald refused to remove his daughter’s royal titles, Haakon “might do it when he is king”.

Norway’s royal family operates on a slimmed-down model with just the new king and queen, and crown princess, who have official taxpayer-funded roles.

The burden is now on Haakon VIII, Queen Mette-Marit and their 22-year-old heir, Crown Princess Ingrid Alexandra, to rebuild trust and restore the royal family’s standing among the public, safeguarding its future.

Isaksen said the institution of monarchy was greater than its current problems.

“The king [Harald] will certainly not be the last monarch,” he said in June.

“Whether the monarchy will survive in the future depends on the behaviour of the royals and whether they manage to fill their roles in a way that makes the monarchy seem relevant and purposeful to the people.

“The last years have been difficult, but it’s too early to write the monarchy’s obituary.”