Byline: WENDY LEIGH

A young couple are preparing to leave their modest flat in an unfashionable part of West London and head for college.

Their two-bedroom home is in a Victorian block in Earl's Court, just around the corner from a betting shop and a kebab house. It is close to the Tube, giving them easy access to their colleges.

He is studying at the London School of Economics, where Colonel Gaddafi's son Saif is a fellow classmate. She is beginning a course at the School of Oriental Studies. Both 29, attractive and casually dressed, they look just like typical students in London.

However, the reality is very different. Two bodyguards live in an adjacent flat, tracking their every move, for they are one of Europe's most controversial royal couples, Norway's Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who married last year in an extravagant ceremony watched by 300million television viewers worldwide.

So what has made Norway's most glamorous couple swap their royal residency in Oslo for a district of London that is hardly salubrious?

The answer lies in the background of Princess Mette-Marit - a background so scandalous that it has horrified the normally conservative Norwegian public and forced the couple to escape to England and build a new life.

Last year, their wedding was greeted by a storm of controversy after it was revealed that Mette-Marit had a son by a convicted drug dealer. Now a new book, published in Germany, reveals for the first time the true extent of her wild and salacious past.

Princess Against All Odds, by Havard Melnaes, includes details of her copious drug taking, her disastrous affairs with criminals and the attempt by a former lover to sell a sexually explicit video of her. Even by the standards of Britain's Royal Family, it is behaviour ill-befitting a princess.

Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby was born in 1973 to a middleclass family in Kristiansand, southern Norway. Her mother, who worked for a bank, was relatively conventional. It was from her father, Sven, that Mette-Marit inherited her decadence.

Sven was a notorious spendthrift and womaniser who published sex books. He is divorced from Mette-Marit's mother and now estranged from his daughter after criticising her in the Norwegian Press. But it is clear her reckless and impulsive behaviour has mirrored his.

Pretty, charismatic and athletic, Mette-Marit grew up with two brothers and a sister, all many years her senior.

As the baby of the family, she was spoiled and adored. When, at only 16, she chose to spend a year in the remote Australian town of Wangaratta, her parents readily agreed.

On her return to Norway, Mette-Marit went to university and fell in love with a fellow student. Ricky was two years her senior and a junkie, well known to the Norwegian police. But he was good-looking and charming and Mette-Marit was captivated.

'They had a very serious relationship.

Mette-Marit was totally fascinated by him because he was well read and had opinions on everything,' says a mutual friend in the new book.

His scholarship, however, wasn't his only attribute. According to Havard Melnaes, the apartment they shared together was dubbed The Hash Hole, so readily was the drug available to anyone who happened to be passing by.

Mette-Marit shaved off her striking blonde locks and developed a radically different 'grunge' look.

'Mette-Marit never said No to a joint,' says one friend. 'We called her the party queen. Taking Ecstasy was normal in our group of friends, like drinking beer. She did Ecstasy over and over again. Afterwards, she was pretty wasted and uninhibited. We used to take other stuff as well, like cocaine, and I know she has been with many men in the past.' Once Mette-Marit had tired of Ricky, she transferred her affections to John Drange. He was 13 years her senior and an even rougher diamond than Ricky. He was twice arrested on charges of drug possession and owning an illegal weapon.

By now, Mette-Marit was fully immersed in the drug culture and had become an active member of Norway's house music scene. However, after a year she left Drange and moved to Oslo, where she attempted to make a new life for herself.

'John was heartbroken. He threw himself on his knees begging her to come back to him,' says Melnaes.

The spurned lover became so obsessed with Mette-Marit that he began to stalk her. One day he came face to face with her and, trying to convince her to stay with him, he pulled a knife.

Terrified, Mette-Marit ran into the street, screaming for the police.

Drange was taken into custody for 24 hours.

But that wasn't the end of him. Weeks before her marriage to Norway's Crown Prince, Drange attempted to sell the media a sexually explicit video for pound sterling700,000. A group of Norwegian businessmen, in a chivalrous attempt to protect their new Crown Princess, made an unsuccessful attempt to buy the video to take it off the market. Drange wouldn't sell and the video remains in his possession.

the ready availability of drugs, she filmed a music video featuring a lesbian scene. 'The video featured Mette-Marit making out with Silvany Bricen, a sultry brunette dancer. Both girls were scantily dressed. They kissed and touched each other with enthusiasm,' says Melnaes.

Hungry for the limelight, she also appeared on television in The Flirt Show, the Norwegian equivalent of Blind Date, where 100 men vied for her affection.

Around that time she had a brief affair with Morten Borg, former boyfriend of actress Grace Jones.

Morten had spent two-and-a-half years in jail for selling cocaine.

In 1996, Mette-Marit called him with shocking news. She was pregnant with his son. On January 13, 1997, she gave birth to Marius, just before the father was arrested once more: this time he had 50 grams of cocaine in his possession.

Although Morten was a devoted father, Mette-Marit never allowed their relationship to develop. By now, she had a far bigger fish to fry. At the 1996 Quart Festival, Norway's biggest musical event, she had been introducedto Crown Prince Haakon. It was not love at first sight - after all, she was pregnant with Marius at the time.

The Crown Prince moved to California, where he studied at Berkeley, but kept in touch with Mette-Marit. Three years later, again at the Quart Festival, they met again. This time they were barely able to contain their mutual attraction and Mette-Marit soon moved into his Oslo apartment.

Haakon's parents, King Harald and Queen Sonja of Norway, were captivated by Mette-Marit. Spirited, charming and beautiful, she was ostensibly the perfect daughter-in-law. However, much as they liked her, they were convinced her unsavoury past would jeopardise any future relationship between her and the Crown Prince. Would the people of Norway accept a woman like Mette-Marit as their future queen?

'They tried subtly to separate Haakon from Mette-Marit,' says Melnaes. 'But Haakon threatened to give up his succession to the throne.' He was even prepared to go on national television to confirm rumours about Mette-Marit's chequered history.

Eventually, the King and Queen were forced to relent. 'They realised Mette-Marit was more important to Haakon than becoming king. So they allowed him to marry her.' The wedding attracted a worldwide audience. Prince Charles and the Earl and Countess of Wessex were among the guests at the Lutheran ceremony in Oslo Cathedral, and thousands of flagwaving Norwegians lined the streets to cheer on the royal couple.

But many in Norway still see Mette-Marit as a gold-digger and a wild child.

The Norwegian Press is unforgiving and the revelations in the new book have further sullied her reputation.

Which is why the young couple have chosen to come to London, with fiveyearold Marius and bodyguards in tow.

As they attend lectures at their new colleges, the Crown Prince and Princess of Norway will expect to gain much from their respective courses.

But above all, Mette-Marit will be hoping she is finally allowed the space to become a true princess.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Solo Syndication Limited

This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

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