Numbers do not lie. Only 60% of Norwegians currently support the monarchy, according to the latest poll from NRK, the public broadcaster. Data unprecedented in the country. Although King Harald is rated 9.2 out of 10 and his son Haakon 7.9, the 3.7 score earned by Princess Mette-Marit weighs down the Crown of the Scandinavian nation, which has lost the goodwill of its subjects.
In the face of Norwegian backlash over Princess Mette-Marit’s relationship to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the trial of her son Marius Borg, King Harald has decided to take action. Shortly after returning from Tenerife, the monarch is said to have invited family members to meet with him at his private residence in Kongsseteren to reflect together on a plan that would allow them to weather as well as possible the storm that is buffeting the royal household.
At 89 years old, King Harald has just been through another difficult health moment. During his holidays in our country he was hospitalized for an infection and dehydration. His personal physician, Bjørn Bendz, had to travel urgently to the Canary Islands to supervise his recovery. After celebrating his birthday in Tenerife, he was discharged on February 26 and returned to Oslo to continue his institutional commitments.
Things are not much better for his daughter-in-law health-wise either. The heir princess Mette-Marit remains off the public agenda due to complications arising from her pulmonary fibrosis. Because of this, she will not participate, together with her husband, in the State Visit to Belgium scheduled for next March 24. It will undoubtedly be a missed opportunity for the Norwegian royal family to project a united front.
The crisis cabinet of King Harald of Norway
The Norwegian royal house continues to officially remain silent about Mette-Marit’s involvement in the Epstein case. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, King Harald is said to be looking for a solution so that his family can finally rise to the surface. According to information revealed by the magazine Se og Hør, the monarch and his wife, Queen Sonja, would have secretly gathered Prince Haakon, Princess Mette-Marit and Martha Louise, as well as her husband, the shaman Durek Verrett.
The Princesses Martha Louise and Mette-Marit of Norway.
This meeting at their private residence in Kongsseteren would have been to discuss the situation of the heir princess and, above all, to decide how the royal family will manage this crisis. “Apparently, they tried to come up with a plan to handle the situation together. But the process proved difficult, as they could not agree on the way forward,” reads Se og Hør about this fruitless meeting. The outlet adds that the palace refused to comment when contacted about this matter.
The closest thing so far to a public explanation from the Norwegian royal family were the apologies of Mette-Marit for her extensive email correspondence with Epstein. This spans from 2011 to 2014 and reveals a close closeness between the wife of Prince Haakon and the late financier. “The heir princess wishes to talk about what happened and give more detailed explanations. However, at the moment she is not able to do so. The heir princess is in an extremely difficult situation. She hopes that it will be understood that she needs time to recover,” read a statement issued on February 6.
The brief reappearance of Mette-Marit
After more than five weeks missing, Mette-Marit has been seen again. The Norwegian outlet VG captured photos of the princess with her husband Haakon as they left the prison where Marius Borg has remained since the past February 5. The young man is in pretrial detention after pleading guilty to 24 of the 38 charges against him, as the first part of his trial has already concluded.
In his latest statements, Marius Borg collapsed before the court and lamented having become as “the object of hatred across all of Norway.” Among tears, the eldest son of Princess Mette-Marit lashed out at the police, insisted he did not recognize himself in what is written about him, and told the judge: “The media pressure I have been subjected to has erased me as a person. I am no longer Marius. I am a monster.” Now, the Prosecutor’s Office is seeking seven years and seven months in prison for him, charging him with four rapes, ill-treatment, drug possession, violence, and breaking a restraining order.
