Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit Include Marius Borg Høiby in Anniversary Photos Months After His Four-Year Prison Sentence
Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit have marked their 25th wedding anniversary by opening their private family album — and one image in particular has drawn attention.
Among the previously unseen photographs shared to celebrate the Norwegian royal couple’s silver wedding anniversary was a childhood picture of Marius Borg Høiby, Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship. Its appearance comes just over two months after Høiby was sentenced to four years in prison following a high-profile criminal trial.
Høiby, now 29, was convicted in June of two rape charges, along with assault and abuse in a close relationship. He was acquitted of two other rape charges and has indicated through his lawyers that he will appeal the convictions.
Against that backdrop, his inclusion in the anniversary photographs is particularly notable.
A private family photograph resurfaces 25 years later
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Haakon and Mette-Marit married at Oslo Cathedral on August 25, 2001, beginning a marriage that has now reached its quarter-century milestone. The Norwegian Royal Court confirms that Marius was part of that day too, serving as a page boy at the wedding.
To commemorate their 25th anniversary, the couple shared a selection of personal photographs from the early days of their marriage, including images from their 2001 honeymoon on Long Island in the United States.
One of those photographs shows a then-four-year-old Marius sitting on Haakon’s shoulders as they swim together in the sea.
It is an intimate family moment from a very different period in their lives — decades before the legal proceedings that would place Marius at the center of intense international scrutiny.
The Norwegian Royal Court continues to describe the Crown Prince and Crown Princess’s family as including Marius, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus.
Marius Borg Høiby’s conviction and appeal
Høiby’s trial became one of the most closely followed cases involving someone connected to a European royal family.
Oslo District Court sentenced him to four years in prison in June 2026 after finding him guilty of two of the four rape charges he faced. He was also convicted of assault and abuse in a close relationship.
Høiby had denied the rape allegations while admitting several lesser offences. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of seven years and seven months, while his defence argued that he should be acquitted of the rape charges.
He followed the verdict by video link rather than appearing physically in court because of health reasons.
His lawyers subsequently said he would appeal the convictions relating to rape and domestic abuse and seek his temporary release.
Høiby does not hold a royal title and is not in the line of succession to the Norwegian throne. The official order of succession begins with Crown Prince Haakon, followed by Princess Ingrid Alexandra.
Haakon has previously addressed the strain on the family
The case has placed extraordinary pressure on the Crown Prince family.
Haakon has previously described the situation as “challenging and difficult” for everyone involved. Ahead of the trial, he also stressed that his thoughts were with those affected by the case while acknowledging Marius’s continuing place within the family.
That distinction — between the criminal proceedings and the family’s private relationship with Marius — makes the decision to include the old photograph especially striking.
The image itself predates the allegations by many years and depicts Marius as a small child during the earliest period of Haakon and Mette-Marit’s marriage.
From a controversial royal romance to 25 years of marriage
Haakon and Mette-Marit’s relationship attracted enormous attention from the beginning.
Their engagement was announced on December 1, 2000, and they married the following August before more than 800 guests at Oslo Cathedral. Bishop Gunnar Stålsett conducted the ceremony, while Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark served as Haakon’s best man.
Mette-Marit became Crown Princess of Norway upon the marriage.
King Harald welcomed his new daughter-in-law warmly during the wedding celebrations, praising her openness, honesty, commitment, determination and courage as she embarked on what he described as an extraordinary life.
The couple later established themselves at Skaugum Estate in Asker, where they have lived since 2003.
Their anniversary photographs look back at those formative years, including holidays, selfies and glimpses of their life away from official engagements.
A milestone arriving during an exceptionally difficult year
The silver wedding anniversary comes during an unusually challenging period for Norway’s royal family.
Crown Princess Mette-Marit underwent a successful lung transplant at Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet on June 17 and was discharged on July 14. The Royal Court said Haakon adjusted his official programme to support his wife during her recovery.
King Harald, meanwhile, is currently on sick leave. The Royal Court announced on August 23 that the 89-year-old monarch’s condition had worsened over the weekend as he was treated with antibiotics for a bloodstream bacterial infection, though officials said he had responded to treatment. Crown Prince Haakon is serving as Regent during the King’s absence.
That broader family backdrop gives Haakon and Mette-Marit’s 25th anniversary an added significance.
What might ordinarily have been a straightforward celebration of a royal marriage instead arrives amid health concerns, increased responsibilities for Haakon and the continuing legal case involving Marius.
Yet the photographs chosen for the anniversary look deliberately backward — to the beginning of the couple’s marriage and the family life that surrounded it.
And among those memories is the image of four-year-old Marius on his stepfather’s shoulders, a photograph from 2001 now resurfacing in circumstances nobody pictured when it was taken.
