The China Mail - Norway's new Queen Mette-Marit, a fairytale beset by woe

The tale of the single mother from humble beginnings, whose chance encounter with then-Crown Prince Haakon propelled her to the heart of the monarchy, won the affection of Norwegians.

She was long seen as the embodiment of a modern monarchy capable of shaking up convention. But the 53-year-old now ascends the throne alongside her husband, following the death of King Harald on Friday, with a tarnished image.

Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby was born on August 19, 1973 to a journalist father with alcohol abuse problems and a bank clerk mother in the southern town of Kristiansand, in Protestant Norway's "Bible Belt".

She once described herself as "the most conscientious teenager in the world" until she turned 16 and went to Australia for a year abroad with her school.

The transformative experience saw her break free and reinvent herself.

Upon her return to Norway, she shaved her head, got engaged to a man who introduced her to Oslo's house music scene -- where she experimented with hash and ecstasy, according to an unofficial biography -- and at 24 gave birth to Marius, after a brief romance with another man.

"My teenage rebellion was stronger than most people's," she acknowledged to reporters ahead of her August 2001 marriage to Haakon.

"I was part of a scene where a lot of boundaries were... crossed," she said.

She had met the then-crown prince two years earlier at a music festival.

Her CV was thin at the time, but the striking young waitress won the prince's heart. The Norwegian people, seeing her reserved demeanour in public, quickly looked beyond her wild past.

She and Haakon went on to have two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, now 22, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 20.

- Health woes -

But the fairytale soon took a tragic turn.

In 2018, the couple announced that Mette-Marit had been diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, which causes scarring of the lungs and shortness of breath.

Her illness required her to cut back her public engagements in the ensuing years, and in June 2026, at age 52, she underwent a lung transplant.

The risky surgery came just days before her 29-year-old son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Hoiby, was convicted of rape and assault and sentenced to four years in prison after a highly publicised trial in Oslo. He has appealed.

Adding further to her woes were revelations in Norwegian media in early 2026 detailing her frequent exchanges with Epstein, exposing an unexpected relationship that shocked the Scandinavian country.

In 2011, three years after his first conviction, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein that she had "googled" him, adding "it didn't look too good" and ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.

In 2012, when Epstein told her he was in Paris "on (a) wife hunt", she replied that the French capital is "good for adultery" and "Scandis (are) better wife material".

In 2013, she stayed at his Florida home for four days.

She apologised to Norwegians, saying she "showed poor judgment".

"I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing," she said.

King Harald defended her, saying she had broken no laws and noting that she had ended the friendship.

But the damage was done.

Several polls showed Norwegians no longer deemed her suitable to become queen one day, dealing a blow to the monarchy.

K.Lam--ThChM