OSLO: The Norwegian royal family’s popularity has fallen to its lowest ever after a series of scandals, according to a poll published on Saturday by public broadcaster NRK.

Just 60 percent of Norw­e­gians support the royal family, down 10 points from a month earlier, a level “that has never been so low”, according to NRK.

Princess Mette-Marit, who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, appears multiple times in the millions of pages released by the US Department of Justice, revealing an unsuspected complicity between her and the convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Her son, Marius Borg Hoiby, born from a brief relationship prior to her marriage to Haakon, is on trial for 38 charges, including four counts of rape and violence. The 29-year-old, who is not a member of the royal family, denies the most serious accusations.

In another opinion poll published by TV2 at the end of January, 47.6pc of respondents said that Mette-Marit should not become queen, while only 28.9pc said she should.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2026