A second woman has testified at a court in Oslo, accusing the son of Norway’s crown princess of raping her while she slept.
Marius Borg Høiby, 29, is the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and the stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon. Høiby has no royal title or official duties.
He is on trial for multiple alleged offences with 38 counts against him, including four charges of rape, sexual assault, abuse in a close relationship against one former partner and acts of violence against another, as well as transporting 3.5 kilograms of marijuana, breaking a restraining order and aggravated assault. Others include making death threats and traffic violations.
Høiby stood while prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø read out the 38 counts against him in the Oslo district court on Feb. 3, asking him if he pleaded guilty. He replied “no” to the most serious charges, including the four counts of rape.
Prosecutors have said that Høiby could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted in the trial, which is scheduled to last until March 19. Seven accusers are expected to testify.
Second woman testifies
On Tuesday, during the second week of the trial, the woman testified about an alleged rape that the prosecution said took place on Oct. 3, 2023, following an after-party in an apartment, Agence France-Presse reports.
After consensual sex, the woman said she woke up after Høiby had resumed sexual relations with her, which she said were not consensual.
“I remember waking up when he was already underway. I thought, ‘I don’t understand how someone can have sex with someone who’s sleeping,’” she told the court.
“Then, I mostly had the feeling I was dissociating, leaving my own body,” she said. “It was painful. My body wasn’t ready for it.”
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“That’s always been my worst nightmare,” she said, adding that she closed her eyes “so I wouldn’t have to take part in my own assault.”
The prosecution submitted video evidence that was filmed with Høiby’s phone to prove that the sex that took place happened when the woman was not in a state to say no.
Prosecutor Sturla Henriksbro said the five-second video, discovered on Høiby’s phone by police, showed the woman asleep at the time of the alleged assault. They also shared data from the woman’s fitness watch to show that she was asleep at the time.
The woman told the court that the footage captured by Høiby was taken without her knowledge.
Høiby told the court that the woman “was awake when I had sex with her,” before correcting himself and saying, “When we had sex together.”
“I don’t have sex with women who are asleep,” Høiby added.
“I don’t understand: if we had sex three or four times before, and I woke her up each time, why the hell would I have had sex with her without waking her the last time?”
A court sketch of Marius Borg Hoiby during the second day of the trial against him, which is taking place in room 250 of the Oslo District Court, Norway, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026.
Ane Hem/NTB Scanpix via AP, Pool
First woman’s testimony
Last week, the court heard testimony from another woman who claimed that Høiby raped her at an after-party in the basement of his parents’ estate outside Oslo in December 2018.
The woman told the court that she “100 per cent” believes that she had been drugged during the after-party, the BBC reports.
The woman said she felt “betrayal and shock” after police showed her videos of Høiby allegedly sexually assaulting her.
She said she had no memory of what happened and referred to her memory as a “black hole.”
When asked about the alleged rape in 2018, Høiby told the court that he did not remember taking videos and denied that he had raped the woman. He said they had consensual sex after other people at the after-party had gone to bed.
When asked by the prosecutor if the woman was awake when they had sex, Høiby said, “I don’t sleep with women who aren’t awake.”
Høiby has been under scrutiny since he was repeatedly arrested in 2024 amid allegations of rape and on preliminary charges of bodily harm and criminal damage.
The royal palace said it was up to the courts to handle the case and reach a decision.
Royal problems
The royals are generally popular in Norway, but the Høiby case has been a problem for the family’s image.
The trial opened at a particularly sensitive moment. Mette-Marit faces renewed scrutiny over her past contacts with Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 in a New York jail cell as he faced sex trafficking charges, following the release of a new batch of documents from the Epstein files.
They contained several hundred mentions of the crown princess, who already said in 2019 that she regretted having had contact with Epstein, Norwegian media reported. The documents, which include email exchanges, showed that Mette-Marit borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach, Fla., for several days in 2013. Norwegian broadcaster NRK reported that the stay was arranged through a mutual friend, which was later confirmed by the royal household.
Mette-Marit said in a statement that she “must take responsibility for not having investigated Epstein’s background more thoroughly, and for not realizing sooner what kind of person he was.” She added: “I showed poor judgment and regret having had any contact with Epstein at all. It is simply embarrassing.”
— With files from The Associated Press
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