The son of Norway’s crown princess has begun giving evidence at his trial for rape and more than 30 other alleged offences.
Marius Borg Høiby, 29, looked overwhelmed by the occasion, his voice quivering as he paused several times to take off his glasses and wipe his eyes.
Holding back tears, he said it was very difficult to talk, and complained of being followed by the press since he was three years old.
He denies four allegations of rape as well as other serious charges against him.
He was giving evidence after the first woman he is alleged to have raped told the court she believed she had been drugged during an “after-party” in the basement of Høiby’s parents’ house in December 2018.
The woman spoke of her sense of “betrayal and shock” after she was shown videos by police allegedly of him sexually assaulting her shortly after they had had brief, consensual sex.
She had already spoken of a “black hole” in her memory and told the court behind closed doors that she had no recollection of what happened.
The court has ordered the media not to give any information that might identify any of the four women. There is also a ban on any photos of Marius Borg Høiby, either inside the court building or on his to and from the trial.
The 29-year-old defendant, who was born four years before his mother, Mette-Marit, married Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, is not a member of the royal family or a public figure.
During his first appearance in court on Tuesday, he was seen shaking. He is understood have had hospital treatment overnight.
Høiby was arrested on Sunday on suspicion of assault and wielding a knife and remanded in custody for four weeks. However, he did not return to custody before his statement on Wednesday.
He took a seat in court and after several minutes in which he looked overcome by the occasion, he regained his composure and told the court he had had a lot of sex, drugs and alcohol because he had an extreme need of validation.
“I am known for being Mamma’s son. Nothing else,” he told the three judges.
His trial coincides with a tense moment for his mother, who was found to have exchanged hundreds of messages with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a three-year period.
The royal palace said on Wednesday that Crown Princess Mette-Marit had postponed a private trip “until further notice”, without giving further details.
She has expressed regret and poor judgement over the correspondence.
However, the storm of criticism over the unguarded, warm tone of the exchanges has heaped pressure on the royal house, when Mette-Marit is also seeing her son on trial for rape.
Marius Borg Høiby was arrested in August 2024 after a violent incident at his girlfriend’s flat in the Frogner area of western Oslo.
At the time he spoke of having suffered for years with mental issues and admitted to substance abuse.
After a lengthy police investigation, he was charged a large number of offences, ranging from rape, assault, threatening a girlfriend and damaging her flat, as well as drugs charges and driving offences. If found guilty he could face at least 10 years in jail.
He is accused of raping four women between December 2018 and November 2024, all of them after consensual sex, and while they were either asleep or incapacitated. One of the charges involves full intercourse, and the other three sexual assault, which is also seen as rape in Norway.
Wearing a dark blue turtle-neck, woollen sweater with a zip on top of a smart beige shirt, he looked straight at the three judges who were sitting about 10m (30ft) away from him.
Although he had notes, he did not look down at them. He spoke for about half an hour without interruption.
Høiby did not look to his left where two of the women he is alleged to have raped listened to his evidence a short distance away.
He spoke of how he met the first woman he is alleged to have raped at a party, and he had taken cocaine for the first time.
When he finished giving his statement, prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø began to ask him questions, focusing on the first alleged rape in 2018.
The defendant disputed the account given earlier, and said he did not remember taking videos or that they had had brief consensual sex for a few seconds in a toilet in his parents’ basement. Instead he said they had gone to bed and had consensual sex.
He also took aim at the Norwegian press, accusing them of twisting the facts, disputing a story that his mother had taken a sim-card out of his phone before it was handed to police.
