The story of a single mother from a simple family, whose chance meeting with the then heir to the throne, Prince Haakon (Hokon), brought her to the very center of the monarchy and won the sympathy of the Norwegian people.
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For a long time, she was considered the embodiment of a modern monarchy capable of breaking established rules. However, the 53-year-old woman now steps onto the throne with her husband following the death of King Harald on Friday, carrying a tarnished reputation.
Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby was born on August 19, 1973, in Kristiansand, a city in the south of the country, in a family of a journalist who had problems with alcohol abuse and a bank employee, in the Protestant “Bible Belt” of Norway.
She once described herself as “the most obedient teenager in the world” until she turned 16 and went to study in Australia for a year as part of an exchange program.
This life-changing experience allowed her to break free and rediscover herself.
Upon returning to Norway, she shaved her head, got engaged to a man who introduced her to the Oslo house music scene – where, according to an unofficial biography, she experimented with hashish and ecstasy – and at 24, after a brief romance with another man, gave birth to a son, Marius.
“My teenage rebellion was stronger than many others’,” she admitted to journalists before her wedding to Haakon in August 2001.
“I belonged to an environment where many boundaries were crossed,” she said.
She met the then heir to the throne, the prince, at a music festival.
Her life story was modest at the time, but the attractive young waitress won the prince’s heart. The Norwegian people, noticing her reserved behavior in public, quickly forgot her turbulent past.
She and Haakon have two children: Princess Ingrid Alexandra, now 22, and Prince Sverre Magnus, now 20.
Health issues
However, the fairy tale soon took a tragic turn.
In 2018, the couple announced that Mette-Marit was diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, causing lung scarring and shortness of breath.
Due to the illness, she had to limit her public activities in the following years, and in June this year, she underwent a lung transplant.
The risky operation was performed just a few days before her 29-year-old son from a previous relationship, M. Borgas Hoiby, was sentenced to four years in prison in Oslo after a highly publicized trial for rape and assault. He has appealed the decision.
Her troubles were further compounded by reports in the Norwegian media earlier this year detailing her frequent contacts with J. Epstein, revealing unexpected connections that shocked this Scandinavian country.
In 2011, three years after his first conviction, Mette-Marit wrote to J. Epstein that she had “Googled” him, adding that “things don’t look very good,” ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.
In 2012, when J. Epstein wrote to her that he was looking for a wife in Paris, she replied that the French capital was “a suitable place for infidelity,” and “Scandinavians are more suited to the role of wife.”
In 2013, she stayed at his Florida home for four days.
She apologized to the Norwegian people, saying she “appeared careless.”
“I deeply regret having had any contact with J. Epstein. It’s just shameful,” she said.
King Harald defended her, saying she had not broken any laws and noted that the friendship had ended.
But the damage was already done: several polls showed that Norwegians no longer considered her suitable to ever become queen, dealing a blow to the monarchy.
One of the new king’s tasks will be to strengthen public support for the royal family.
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