Norway’s monarchy once seemed like a fairytale – recent crises have exposed its dark underbelly | Magnus Nome

The royals were always popular, but Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s Epstein connections and her son’s rape convictions have profoundly shaken public trust The Norwegian monarchy is in crisis. Not because its future queen is gravely ill, nor even because her son has this week been convicted of serious crimes, but because the institution’s greatest asset – public trust – has been eroded by a series of self-inflicted mistakes. Yesterday, it was announced that Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, underwent a successful lung transplant after reports of a dramatic deterioration of her pulmonary fibrosis. That initial news prompted an outpouring of sympathy and even a surge in organ donor registrations. Without jumping the queue, she was matched with a compatible set of lungs less than two weeks after being placed on the list. But the other two issues have elicited a very different public response. First, there are the actions of her son, Marius Borg Høiby. As a child, he stood on the palace balcony with the royal family, waving at the 30,000 children marching by on Norway’s constitution day. This year, he’s been standing trial, accused of 40 offences, including rape, threa