Sven O. Høiby

Who was Sven O. Høiby?

Sven Olaf Bjarte Høiby was the father of Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway. After his daughter married the Crown Prince, he became a national celebrity due to a number of articles in the yellow press, especially Se og Hør.

He and Mette-Marit's mother Marit Tjessem divorced in 1984. After the divorce, Mette-Marit grew up with her mother, stepfather and siblings, while visiting her father regularly on weekends. Høiby worked for several years as a journalist in a local newspaper and as a small-scale advertiser and publisher in his hometown. By the time his daughters relationship to the Crown Prince was publicly known, he had retired from working and was receiving a disability pension.

Sven O. Høiby became something of a controversial figure following his daughter's marriage to the Crown Prince. The national tabloids and especially the gossip magazine Se og Hør printed several stories where he gave interviews and was presented in less than flattering situations.

"En helt vanlig dag på jobben", a book published by former Se og Hør journalist Håvard Melnæs, who knew Høiby personally, reveals that Høiby was being paid upwards to 400,000 NOK a year by the magazine to appear in articles, and for sharing private pictures and information about his daughters childhood. The magazine even purchased a mobile phone for him and payed his phone bills as a bonus for his provided "services" to them.