The Norwegian Royal Family had another tumultuous year, with Marius Borg Høiby charged with 32 offences and facing up to 10 years in prison, the late-breaking news that Crown Princess Mette-Marit will require a lung transplant in the future, and the scandal surrounding Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett’s Netflix documentary. Here are some of the major moments the Norwegian royals faced in 2025.
THE ONGOING SCANDAL SURROUNDING MARIUS BORG HØIBY
The controversy around Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s oldest son, Marius Borg Høiby continued into 2025. In August, he was officially charged with 32 offences, including four counts of rape. His stepfather, Crown Prince Haakon, spoke out for the first time publicly afterwards, commenting only that “it will be the courts who decide in the end.”
Høiby is set to go to trial in early 2026 and could face up to 10 years in prison. As 2025 came to an end, Crown Princess Mette-Marit said that people judging her had been hard.
QUEEN SONJA IS HOSPITALISED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR
It’s a headline nobody wants to read, but at the beginning of the year, Queen Sonja was hospitalised for atrial fibrillation at the Lillehammer Hospital before being transferred to the Rikshospitalet.
At the outset, though, the Norwegian Royal Court was quick to stress that it was not a serious health condition and there was no cause for alarm. Within a month, she was back at work and has been working consistently ever since.
CROWN PRINCESS METTE-MARIT’S HEALTH TAKES A DOWNTURN
Just as the Norwegian Royal Family was getting ready to wind down for the holidays, they dropped sad news about Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s health: the future queen is being assessed for a lung transplant.
“We are approaching the time when a lung transplant must be performed, and we are making the necessary preparations so that it will be possible when that time comes,” Dr. Are Martin Holm, the head of the Pulmonary Department at the Rikshospitalet, in a statement provided by the Royal Court.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit is not yet on the lung transplant waiting list, but it’ll happen in the future. As she told NRK in the annual ‘Year with the Royal Family’ documentary aired at the year’s end, “I have always hoped that we would be able to keep the disease in check with medication, and the development has actually been quite slow up until now. Whereas now the development has been faster than both I and the doctors had hoped for.”
The news came after a period of pulmonary rehabilitation in October, where the Norwegian Royal Court announced that the crown princess would step back from duties for the month in a bid to improve her health. And earlier in March, the Court revealed that her symptoms were worsening and her schedule would change daily depending on her needs.
PRINCESS INGRID ALEXANDRA GOES DOWN UNDER
After completing her military training, Princess Ingrid Alexandra announced that for the next three years, the third-in-line will be a student at the University of Sydney in Australia, reading for a political economy and international relations degree. While she’s a student, she won’t be expected to carry out royal duties, though she attended several engagements before moving to Australia and more after coming home for the break—including attending the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony for the first time!
PRINCESS MÄRTHA LOUISE AND DUREK VERRETT STAR IN NETFLIX DOCUMENTARY
A royal family rocked by the revelations in a Netflix documentary lifting the curtains on the downside of life in a monarchy… this year, it was Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett’s turn.
Rebel Royals: An Unlikely Love Story premiered to immediate controversy in Norway, and it was established that the couple had broken their agreement with the Royal Family to not use their titles in connection with business ventures.
King Harald commented on the documentary to say, “We’re going to try to do something about this through conversations. We’re continuing the conversations with them. I think they’re more in line with us than it seems.”
Crown Prince Haakon said: “We want there to be a clearer distinction between the activities of the Royal House and Princess Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett’s projects and commercial activities. And I hope we can achieve that a little better.”
Queen Sonja, however, had the best response when asked about it. Read for yourself.
