Three months after his last public appearance, photographs of Marius Borg Høiby outside prison shook the Norwegian royal house - at the worst possible moment. The son of Princess Mette-Marit is in a prison in Oslo, awaiting a verdict scheduled for 15 June 2026. In the photos he's seen in a T-shirt and sunglasses, with a police escort, en route between the prison and the courthouse in Rien.

The questions aren't slow in coming. Why was he let out? Where was he supposed to go? The palace stays silent, the police stress „routine transport" - but in a country where royal scandal is an almost invisible subject, these photos have become the public's first real way into the case.

The indictment against Marius is no small thing: 40 counts, including four counts of rape, domestic violence, breach of a restraining order, weapons offences. The state prosecution is asking for seven years and seven months in prison. All three attempts to challenge his detention - at first instance, on appeal, in the supreme court - have been rejected.

For the Norwegian royal house, this is the worst crisis since the day Prince Haakon and Mette-Marit married in 2001. Queen Sonja recently came out of hospital; King Harald defended his daughter-in-law with the line „she hasn't committed a crime." A family that has spent decades building a reputation for „normalcy" is now waiting on a verdict that could tear it down.