Annie: Welcome to Covered, a podcast that helps you figure out what the hell is going on in the news and how you feel about it.

Jodi: Here to guide you through the week's biggest stories. As always, we are your hosts, journalists Jodi Lee and Annie.

Annie: And on this week's episode, we dive into Pauline Hansen's big pitch to the country and her press club speech that has everyone talking.

Jodi: Yeah, and why it feels like shark attacks have become more prevalent in Australia after a woman was tragically mauled at Coogee Beach.

Annie: And the member of the Norwegian royal family sentenced to jail time for rape. A lot to unpack with that one. But first, let's get to our honorable mentions. These are the stories that don't quite warrant a deep dive, but are worth getting your head across. And we'll start with some rare good news, if we can call it that, out of the Middle East. After months of war, the US and Iran have finally signed a deal to bring the fighting to a halt. Now, this is just a 60-day truce rather than a full peace agreement, The are pretty sweeping. The US is lifting sanctions ⁓ and helping set up a $425 ⁓ fund to rebuild Iran. ⁓ They're also reopening the Strait of Hormuz, that's shipping lane. A fifth of the world's oil passes through, which Iran obviously shut down, and a big reason fuel had been so pricey here.

Jodi: Our second honorable mention, would you believe it, is more good news. Your social media feeds this last week would have been flooded like mine with blue, orange, and white as the New York Knicks clinched the NBA championship. It was a massive win for New York basketball fans, the first title that they'd won since 1973. And player Jalen Brunson also had a huge day out, too. He actually equaled the GOAT Michael Jordan, scoring 45 points, which is are the most amount of points ever scored in an away game to clinch an NBA championship. I'm an unofficial bandwagon jumper, go the Knicks.

Annie: Those pictures were actually insane. ⁓ and finally, an update on a story we brought you a little while back. Shock jock radio star Kyle Sanderlands has settled with his employer, ARN Media. And ⁓ think we we can say it didn't exactly go his way. He went in chasing $85 million and came out with just 12. And he's not even getting it in one hit. It's three million dollars up front from next month. And then it's sort of dribbled out month by month until 2029. The only upside or sweetener is that ARN's throwing in 1.5 million in advertising for his new show, though they'll claw back a fifth of whatever it earns. So a very long way to fall for a bloke who used to own the airwaves. But I want to move to our first story now. And I think I'm just gonna come out and say it straight. I really feel like we are in the middle of a Make Australia great again moment, ⁓ which obviously leads us to Pauline Hansen. We've ⁓ we've covered a lot about ⁓ One Nation, meteoric rise, ⁓ and you know how disenfranchised many Australians are by the two parties, ⁓ but we kind of couldn't ignore or escape what. unfolded yesterday. Jodi fill us in.

Jodi: Yes, so Pauline Hansen spoke at the National Press Club in Canberra, typically addresses there a televised live on the ABC, and hers certainly was. ⁓ it's a room full of nation's top political journalists that come and they're able to ask questions of someone after they deliver a speech. ⁓ Pauline Hansen gave what is now being called her largest political address in 30-year career. ⁓ she covered a of ground and in true Pauline Hansen style, it wasn't ⁓ It wasn't short on controversy.

Annie: Yeah, a lot of drama.

Jodi: So much drama, always drama. When does it become smooth sailing?

Annie: Yeah. Yeah, so that caught a lot of people off guard. For those who are just listening and couldn't see what was actually happening, her speech got crashed by an activist organization called Get Up. Now, this huge poster was essentially rolled down behind her, accusing her of voting against ⁓ pay rises for workers while taking a $100,000 bump herself. ⁓ it was kind of this, you know, gotcha moment, but in true Pauline fashion, she carried on. She didn't seem phased by it at all. She said thank you very much. And at the time she was actually talking about the cost of living crisis in the country and how many young school children are going to school hungry. I'm not sure that it completely landed this sort of stunt.

Jodi: No, I don't think it landed, and I am just gonna go out on a limb and say I think that a stunt like this almost has the opposite effect. Instead of ridiculing someone like Pauline Hansen, which is no doubt what it was designed to do, She obviously handled it f very well, like credit where credit's due, ⁓ and I think it has almost the opposite effect. I actually think that something like this will fuel Hansen and fuel her supporters. ⁓ And it also draw what really shits me about this stunt it's distracting. It draws the attention away from what Pauline was saying ⁓ and it forces people to on the protest itself. And I think what she said is incredibly important for Australians to to listen to, to look at, ⁓ and to sit with and themselves whether or not they are comfortable with those ideas becoming policy.

Annie: I think the term we really need to take away from that is monoculture. And if you're anything like me, you may not be familiar with that word. So let's kind of unpack exactly what Pauline Hansen was saying here. ⁓ She's essentially fine with Australia being multiracial, but says that we must sort of operate under this monocultural umbrella. So that is ⁓ living to Australian standards, Australian ideologies, and and really ⁓ This sort of Australian purpose. I think it's important to note that immigration was kind of at the heart of this and it was the backdrop to her speech. She went on to call multiculturalism a social cancer, which is very, very strong language. Nothing out of the ordinary for Pauline Hansen. I think what makes this kind of different is that she did sort of back this with some pretty hardline numbers. She came out and said one nation wants to cap. ⁓ immigration at 130,000 people a year. And her party frames that as a cut of more than half a million under current labor levels. She also went on to say that she wants to deport what around seven seventy-five thousand people she says are living here unlawfully, calling them visa overstayers.

Jodi: ⁓ you know, this is probably make me sound incredibly woke, but ⁓ as I always say on the podcast, strong opinions loosely held. ⁓ I wax lyrical about social cohesion being at an all-time low Australia. ⁓ that's not my opinion, that's fact. We have a Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social going on right now. ⁓ This kind of rhetoric from somebody like Pauline Hansen, in my view, is the social cancer. We cannot be talking and labeling people as others and as scapegoats to solve all our problems. That's not to say that immigration policy shouldn't be reviewed. It may or may not need to. ⁓ but it's not just migrants that she took aim at, and this is the other thing. White Australians, particularly women who listen to this podcast, should listen really carefully. Pauline Hansen said that women should not be paid to go to work. That's saying she doesn't believe in paid maternity leave. Last week we talked about how Birth rates were falling because there weren't enough systems in place for women to confidently step away from the workforce to have children. Now Pauline Hansen's saying, don't have kids, don't leave the workforce. If you do, it's on you. Like cost of living has never been higher. Ridiculous. ⁓ she also said she wants to abolish the SBS. Make

Annie: Mm. Which is timely considering that we're all watching the World Cup for free right now on SBS But anyway, carry on.

Jodi: Correct. Thank you. Yeah. She wants to abolish the SBS. She okay, she did acknowledge that the ABC was very critical to regional and rural Australians. I will agree with that. But then she said she wants to make the ABC ⁓ subscription-based if you live in a metropolitan city. Massive snub to Indigenous Australians by refusing at the start of her speech, she actively said, I am not going to provide an acknowledgement of country. So offensive. At the National Press Club in Canberra, offensive.

Annie: But that but that for me is just so Pauline Hansen. Like I I I'm like not shocked or offended by that because I just think this is the exact sort of conversation she wants us to be having right now.

Jodi: No, I think dismissing it as shock value and dismissing it as the old Pauline Hansen is problematic and dangerous. you know, I think the thing about migration, which really worried me, ⁓ that some of the language she used around it was with specific reference to ⁓ and style of dress, was how she called out ⁓ groups and she labeled those as an inability to kind of assimilate into Australian culture. I don't think that somebody's ability to express who they are. To express their culture, to express their religious views, is counterintuitive to us being a socially cohesive nation.

Annie: I think picking up on your language point, she also, which kind of surprised me, and I think demographic lines are gonna be drawn here, but she really took aim at people who speak other languages at home. She went directly after ⁓ who, ⁓ frankly, are probably just bilingual, speaking Mandarin and Arabic. ⁓ she threw out this stat that more than 850,000 people who live in this country don't speak English. ⁓ Which has now been completely debunked by majority of the mainstream media. I I think this is gonna backfire enormously down the track, and it's really giving ⁓ ammunition to her opponents to exploit this later when we get closer to a federal election.

Jodi: I just think, you know, the inability of people or people being ridiculed for bringing over a language that represents their culture and history. Like how sad. How sad that that that is something she wants to see as uniquely Australian. That we only speak English.

Annie: And it's a good question, 'cause what is her measure of uniquely Australian? What what is the identity that she's selling here? Is it the is it the bloke at the pub sculling

Jodi: White. White.

Annie: Sculling the pine. Like I'm a little bit confused. You know, she claims that we're a country losing its identity, and I agree that we are somewhat divided at the moment. But I don't think multiculturalism has anything to do with that. We're a relatively young country. You look at ⁓ the different populations who have settled here: the Greeks, the Italians, the Vietnamese, Lebanese, they built this place alongside everyone else, and at risk of sounding quite patriotic. But you might might remember that song ⁓ by the Seekers, which is probably past my time, but everyone knows it because there's kind of been this. Campaign to make it the unofficial national anthem. But the lyrics are we are one, but we are many. It feels like Pauline Hansen is trying to redact the we are many line.

Jodi: Yes, and she is. She always has been. She, you know, she ha she is the perpetrator of the white Australia policy. Like this is not surprising. And that's what I'm saying. Australians actually need to take heed of this and rather than just ⁓ dismiss her as ⁓ you know, some crazed lunatic with outlandish ideas, like really stop and consider that she got up at the National Press Club talking about migration as a key problem here. As migrants, people who are different, who speak different languages, who dress differently, Pauline Hansen believes that they are the problem.

Annie: I think we just need to pause for a second though, because I think it is worth pausing here. I mean a lot of that language i is just insane. But the the point that I get stuck on is where is any of this going? And can Pauline Hansen actually lead this country? Like what are her what are the odds of her actually becoming Prime Minister?

Jodi: Very question to ask. ⁓ I had to double check this, but it's ⁓ it's a valid question considering we talk a lot about the polls, and Hansen is ⁓ ahead Anthony Albanizia's preferred PM, and One Nation is ahead of both of the major parties in Labour and the coalition. ⁓ The answer is yes, Pauline Hansen can be elected as the Prime Minister. ⁓ As as that may be for some. ⁓ we assume that the PM has to come from the lower house. Pauline Hansen is a senator in the upper house.

Annie: I think.

Jodi: But that ruling isn't constitution, it's just convention. So ⁓ a few things would have to move in the background, but yeah, it is i it's possible that Hansen could be Australia's Prime Minister.

Annie: Right. I mean, as possible as it is, do you do we actually think that this is a reality? Because in order to do this, Pauline Hansen would have to give up, you know, her safe Senate seat, one that she's held for more than ten years, and gamble it on a single lower house seat. If you look at ⁓ you know, history in our country, there's only been one prime minister who has come from the Senate, and that happened in the 60s. So My reading of this is when she says she wants the top job or she wants One Nation to lead the country, I kind of see it as ambition signalling as opposed to a real tangible plan.

Jodi: Yeah, technically speaking, it may not come to fruition. Like she'd have to survive a vote of no confidence. She'd have to be able to get, ⁓ you know, she'd have to really climb and be able to build a majority of like seventy-six seats. So yeah, it's it's it's a steep hill to climb. It's definitely a big ask. But the reality is that whether or not she becomes prime minister, Hansen is clawing away votes from both

Annie: Right.

Jodi: major parties at a rate of knots.

Annie: But ⁓ a question that I had is, Pauline Hansen typically sort of held this regional protest vote. ⁓ In order to actually become Prime Minister, wouldn't have to sort of gain traction in the big cities as well?

Jodi: Yeah, but I think she's the Stephen Bradbury of politics right now, in that no one's saying she's the most effective or most popular, but the two major parties are just failing at every hurdle. ⁓ Liberals' reputation has never been in more tatters. I mean

Annie: Yeah.

Jodi: They're completely confused when it comes to who they stand for and who they represent. They've had huge issues ⁓ with female members. They they've just struggled, quite frankly, and we've seen that play out in in the polling. So the liberals are flailing. People have had enough of Labour, especially under Anthony Albanese, enter Pauline Hansen to save the day. It's a bit like the teal wave that we saw. ⁓ people just want an alternative to the two major parties, and I think That is what's happening with Hansen and One Nation.

Annie: Well, for all of those reasons that you just mentioned, particularly ⁓ centred on the back of a federal budget that has left our small business community in revolt and younger Australians questioning if they can ever get ahead here, I just don't see a scenario where Pauline Hansen becomes the Prime Minister and One Nation leads this country. I think the far more likely scenario here is that the Liberals ⁓ pull the stick out of their ass and essentially strike a preference deal with one nation to block out Labor. I mean that's how she shapes the country. It's not by winning power, it's by deciding who does. Does that make sense?

Jodi: Yeah, it does. And obviously, Ever the Skeptic, I know you're so full of hope and optimism. Ever the Skeptic, I just can't help but reflect back to 2016. I'll never forget we were in Hawaii on holiday. I was sitting at a bar drinking a cocktail, watching the US election on TV. And I remember thinking like as I I literally remember thinking like, as if Donald Trump, like loser.

Annie: Mm. I do remember that feeling. Yeah.

Jodi: Up against Hillary Clinton, you know, who had had a lifetime in politics, had been the first lady, had lived at the White House, had worked all her life in policy. I was like, Donald Trump, as if. Well, I ate a slice of humble pie and have done ever since because, and this is what I mean by underestimating Hansen. It's really easy to just laugh her off as a bit of a joke. But I think that this national press club address is is the reckoning for Australians.

Annie: Well Mm. well, speaking of Trump, a lot of the ⁓ commentary in the wake of this speech is that she's essentially, you know, operating out of his playbook. And we wanna play you or end on a final clip. This is Pauline Hansen ⁓ responding to a journalist who was inside that press room just yesterday. Banned. She's seething though. Like you can see it in her face. Anyway, have we have we had enough have we had enough of Pauline Hansen? I think we have. ⁓ yeah, let's move on. Let's move to it. ⁓ this is one that has rattled many Australians, ⁓ particularly

Jodi: Gaslighting. Yeah, she's it's gaslighting. It's so dangerous. Yeah. From one beast to another. Let's move to our second story.

Annie: Sydney Ciders this week, and that is the Coogee shark attack. I do have a pretty honest admission to make here. I was sitting at a cafe on Saturday and I saw this headline come through. And for some reason, I didn't feel the shock that I should have. And I think it's because we have seen this spate of shark attacks that it's almost like I've come to expect it, which doesn't diminish what happened at all, but I think this is why we've to do this story today. ⁓

Jodi: Yeah, well I don't think ⁓ that you're alone in that. It's almost like we've it's just become normalized. The frequency of these shark attacks, certainly in Sydney, is alarming, but this one really does deserve to be looked at. So Leah Stewart is the victim. She's been identified. She's a teacher and a mum of a one-year-old. She's an avid beachgoer and a swimmer. Apparently she's passionate about the ocean. What's alarming for me is that she was swimming like late in the morning. It was after eleven o'clock. She was between the flags. You know, onlookers say that she was only like fifteen meters out from shore, which is how I always feel comfortable swimming. ⁓ you know, I'm not that far away from the sand. ⁓ and you know, it's believed that she was attacked by a great white. People are saying that this shark was between three and four meters long. ⁓ and she is still critical. Some reports are that she's had an arm amputated.

Annie: Yeah, and this Great White is believed to be a juvenile, though to put the size into perspective, it was about the length of a small car. So ⁓ picture that. Yeah, it's wild. ⁓ the first to reach her, and this is an amazing story, was an off-duty lifesaver by the name of Charlie Virko. He was training nearby on a paddle board. He describes it as ⁓ hearing screams for help, then someone yells shark, and he sees all of these swimmers scurry back to the sand. ⁓ So he paddles over to Leah, and when he reaches her, he essentially sees a pool of blood in the ocean.

Jodi: Can I just say something before we go into the details of this? That grab is courtesy of the ABC, the public broadcaster, and if Pauline Hansen is elected to office, you and all of our listeners would have to pay to hear that grab unless you live in regional or rural Australia. Anyway, back to the shark attack.

Annie: Want to say Ha ha ha ha. Really gotta be in her bonnet with Pauline. But I I just wanna give that man credit where credit's due. I think he honestly should be up for Australian of the year. He could apparently still see the shark in the water when he went over to Leah. There was no one else there, so he knew if that he didn't help her in that moment, she would be left there alone. And apparently he was actually talking to her while he, you know, used one arm to paddle back, and he was saying, like, I've got you, you just need to breathe. I just anyway, I'm it's so sad this whole story.

Jodi: Human being. what I thought was really interesting was obviously they were using like tourniquets and they were obviously trying to stem the bleeding. Apparently, there is like a shark trauma kit at Australian beaches, and this is the first time that one had ever been used. Do you know what that is? I didn't even I didn't even heard of that.

Annie: ⁓ yeah. Yeah. No No, so I had no idea they existed and then I actually saw this photo and apparently they're on sort of major patrolled beaches but they're almost like imagine like a first aid kit, but it's a shark kit. Had no idea that we were there yet. I didn't know this was a thing.

Jodi: No, n neither did I. Well apparently that this shark attack at Coogee was the first time one's actually ever been deployed. you know, there all there's also obviously, as so often happens in in such tragic circumstances, there's like a GoFundMe, a fundraiser. ⁓ Leah Stewart's family's raised, I think, over three hundred thousand dollars at the time of recording. So the community is rallying around her, but ⁓ yeah, just awful.

Annie: Yeah, enormously. And she was on maternity leave at the time. She's got a little daughter. I think what makes this story bigger than just a very tragic Saturday on a beautiful Sydney day is when you actually look at the national record that tracks shark attacks. So on average a shark attack kills around two to three people a year. If you look at what happened last year in 2025, that number doubled to five fatal shark attacks. ⁓ it's the run that's happening right here in New South Wales. that I think is rattling most people because most of these attacks have happened in our backyard.

Jodi: Yeah, well they're not on like remote surfing beaches that are hours away from civilization. I remember covering the death of Mercury Solakis on the northern beaches in September last year. Then there was the young boy who was killed in Sydney Harbour jumping off the rocks in January. After that there was a surfer who was or man who was mauled manly in the same week, and now Leah. So it's kind of I don't know. It used to be easy to shrug off as bad luck, like wrong place, wrong time, but I I I feel a bit like you, it's starting to feel a little bit like a pattern.

Annie: and the the big question ⁓ that I think we're all coming back to is why, and I've sort of gone on a bit of a deep dive this week ⁓ try and get an answer. And if you listen to researchers, marine biologists, politicians, it all kind of points to climate change. ⁓ And I won't get into the technical details because I'm not some global warming expert, but as the oceans warm, it's essentially shifting where sharks are going. So researchers from James Cook University actually linked these warmer waters to changing shark migration patterns. So, in simple terms, a shark that would normally sort of head north to Queensland in search of warmer waters over winter now lingers off the New South Wales coast for much longer.

Jodi: There's a physical side to it too, right?

Annie: Yes, well this is the fascinating thing is that a shark's body temperature actually matches these warmer waters, which changes their physiology. So it increases their metabolism, which means that they're essentially hungrier ⁓ and going closer into shore to find their prey, you know, like stingrays, flathead, whatever it is. ⁓ So places that they used to just pass through, ⁓ they're kind of just hanging around, which is why they're saying it's potentially leading to this increase in shark attacks.

Jodi: Yeah shit. And then I guess the natural assumption is if the water is warmer then there's also more of us in the water.

Annie: Yeah, well that that that's the big point is that, you know, we're maybe it comes back to migration. Migration's increase.

Jodi: Wait, do you mean shark migration or human migration? Just to clarify.

Annie: Human migration. Human migration. There's more of us here, there's more of us in the water anyway. Let's not go there. But really it's

Jodi: There are also more sharks ⁓ migrating. So everything comes back to Pauline Hansen.

Annie: Heart of this is the is the question that you know, can humans and and sharks, these terrifying species, can we coexist together? This is an argument that has been discussed for centuries. As you would know, Jody, as a as a former news reporter, every time summer rolls around, you're essentially sent on a shark story, whether that's either looking at what shark nets are doing, drum lines or drones, it's a conversation that always flares up. I think the difference this year is that these attacks have really brought it into focus, and we're all s sort of getting to the point where we're like, hey, I think something needs to be done about this now.

Jodi: Well, yeah, I mean the thing about those sort of protection mechanisms is that they're not year-round, they're seasonal, in part because they're not foolproof, and also because there are consequences to them. There is other, you know, natural wildlife in the ocean that is at risk by things like drum lines and nets. So the nets get put in at September in September when the weather warms up and people typically start heading out to the beach, and then they get removed. in April. So at i over winter there are typically no nets in place at beaches and Coodie didn't have a net in place on Saturday. I I by the beach and I always assumed that the government or the council, I don't know who I thought was in charge of it. ⁓ just assumed that there were measures in place at all of these popular major beaches to protect us and keep us safe. So I think it's worth w running through what those protection mechanisms are, how effective they are, and whether or not or how often they are implemented.

Annie: Yeah, well, really, a lot of these protection measures are only on patrolled beaches. The most obvious and the oldest mechanism is obviously nets, as you mentioned earlier. That they've been around since, you know, the early 1930s. but as most people would probably know, this isn't essentially like an enclosure. It's literally just like a strip of mesh. So it runs about a hundred and fifty meters along a beach, a few hundred meters out from the shore. And they're about six meters high. So sharks can swim under them, over them, and around them. but the biggest criticism with the nets ⁓ is that cut catch a lot of other marine life. We've seen those shocking videos of, you know, turtles, rays, dolphins all being caught up, which is incredibly sad and it's been a ⁓ a very big point for a lot of marine activists that say that they shouldn't exist. ⁓

Jodi: Yes. Then there's obviously drum lines, which people have heard a lot about. I never understood what they were, but a drumline essentially dangles it's ⁓ a baited hook, so it draws a shark to it. A team is notified as soon as a shark then takes that bait and the team comes out to tag and monitor the shark. But I mean, I rate that system because it's obviously safe for the shark, but it doesn't stop the shark then swimming to shore.

Annie: No, it doesn't. And I think the biggest prevention measure is obviously the drones. It's kind of like lifesaver's eyes in the skies right now. And with AI, we can expect to see a lot more drones being activated. I found this interesting. Last year in New South Wales, there was literally like 18,000 drone flies across beaches. ⁓ and what typically happens is if the lifesavers spot the shark, they can then sound the alarm, clear the water. And last summer it led to 88. Evacuations on beaches, so it's doing its job.

Jodi: Yeah, amazing, but there was no drone over Coogee the day that this woman was attacked.

Annie: No, and this is the catch because Coogee sits under the Sydney Airport flight path, so drones ac The red tape in this country is really coming out.

Jodi: As long as your Sydney to Melbourne was on time and you had your cheese and bickies, no worries.

Annie: Well, the the difficult thing to swallow about this is while it's in a restricted flight path, so many locals at Coogee I mean, I've seen it, they're throwing up their drones all the time just to get their picturesque pictures for social media, yet on the day that a shark attack happens, our frickin' surf lifesavers can't put up a drone and potentially prevent this shark from attacking a a mother. Like it's insane.

Jodi: Yeah, it's so hard. It's always the the organizations that need them to actually do their job are limited by the restrictions and you know, what's that it's that old saying like rather beg for forgiveness than ask for permission, you know? That's really sad.

Annie: Hm. Yeah, I mean, my opinion with this is i it's ⁓ to say now and it's hard to to debate when you have a woman, you know, fighting for her life in hospital. But I don't think we're ever gonna fully solve the shark debate in this country. There isn't really a silver bullet solution here. ⁓

Jodi: Tony Abbott doesn't agree with you.

Annie: I know but I don't really agree with Tony Abbott.

Jodi: So Tony Abbott, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott, now president of the Australian Liberal Party, who is also a manly surf lifesaver, Tony Abbott reckons that we should cull the sharks.

Annie: Mm.

Jodi: Sorry, sorry, just it's so wrong that we don't cull sharks after an attack. What does Tony Abbott think that it's like when a dog wets itself on the carpet and you rub its nose in it, it's gonna tell all its friends, ooh, don't weigh on the carpet. if you shoot a shark, if you kill a shark after a shark attack, it's not gonna send a telegram to all the other sharks, like, hey guys, stay away from Coogee

Annie: Yeah. But also the biggest point is the logistics of this. He's talking about the mass murder of every shark in the frickin' ocean. Researchers don't even have those numbers. Well, shall we just agree to disagree with Tony Abbott? It wouldn't be the first time. Anyway, let's move on to our last story ⁓ ⁓ All the over in Norway, which is a very small country close to Sweden. And this storm

Jodi: But also in our backyard.

Annie: Yes, well this is this is the interesting thing. It kind of ⁓ has a direct correlation, if we can call it that, to Australia, because a young woman who is second in line to the throne in Norway spent the past year studying here in Sydney. And this week on the other side of the world, her half-brother was convicted of rape. He was facing 38 very serious charges. So it's a royal story, but it also lands kind of closer to home than what you think.

Jodi: It's royal, but not royal, because the man at the center of this, whose name I will struggle to pronounce, but I believe it is pronounced Marius Borg Hoybi. No one told Pauline Hansen I was trying to speak a language other than English at home. So Marius Borg Hoyby is a 29 year old. He he lives a very royal life, but he's technically not a member of the royal family. His mum is ⁓ Crown Princess Met Marit of Norway.

Annie: ⁓ my god, we can't escape it.

Jodi: He was born to his mum before she married into the royal family, so neither of his parents were royal when he was born. he essentially grew up in the palace though as the future king's stepson, but legally he's considered an ordinary citizen.

Annie: Yeah, and his mum's story is kind of worth getting the background on because Metmaret, ⁓ she was a commoner before she essentially entered the royal family. She was just twenty-five, she was this sort of unmarried, single mum. ⁓ When she met the Prince ⁓ Hawkin at a music festival back in 1999, and at the time her ⁓ her ex-husband or the father of her child ⁓ actually in prison on drug charges, and he'd been linked to the underworld in Norway, it was a whole thing. ⁓ the point of this is that it was a very unlikely royal romance. They kind of faced trial by media. ⁓ She worked very, very tirelessly to ⁓ you know redefine her role in the monarchy. And she essentially won them over. She's almost like a symbol of resilience in Norway, the the darling, the jewel in the crown, if we can call her that. And they've actually been married for 22 years. So it all worked out.

Jodi: Yeah, well she's a real rags to riches story, you know, and I feel like a lot like Princess Mary, the Tasmanian. which is why this whole story has been such a fall from grace. Because despite her marrying into the royal family, having children with the Crown Prince of Norway, her son, Marius, has literally been found guilty by a court in Oslo of two counts of rape, drugs charges, and And domestic abuse against former partners. He's been jailed for two years. ⁓ you know, he had originally faced four counts of rape. He was acquitted of two. The court found that there wasn't enough evidence to prove that those sexual encounters were not consensual. But the convictions, and this is what gets me, the convictions were found to involve women who were unconscious or asleep at the time.

Annie: I mean the charges themselves are sickening, but the circumstances are even far more sickening. so the women themselves didn't actually report this to police. Apparently, investigators had been looking at a separate incident back in 2024, ⁓ they went through Marius's phone, his computer. ⁓ And they found all of these videos. In watching these videos, they realized that this documented women in incredibly compromising, disgusting positions, and it showed rape. And basically, investigators had to call these women in, bring them to the police station, sit them down in an interview room, show them the videos. And at that point, they had no idea what had actually been done to them. ⁓

Jodi: Yeah, so the trial ran for several weeks and several of the women testified in this. One of the rapes actually happened in the basement of the Crown Prince's official residence. So it happened on royal grounds, which is crazy to think. ⁓ there was only one victim who was in the courtroom when the verdict was handed down. Media reported that she burst into tears. I think she might have collapsed at one point when he was found guilty of raping her. ⁓ prosecutors had had originally asked the crown to sentence him to seven years behind bars. He obviously was sentenced to four years and he's now appealing that sentence. ⁓

Annie: and the prosecutor was very pointed about what this all meant when he delivered the interviews to media after that verdict was handed down. ⁓ It's true. Like

Jodi: It is really true. It's a very strong message that no one is above the law. But interestingly, I noticed in official communications the palace was really quick to distance itself ⁓ So I think they basically said like he's not technically a member of the royal family, just a citizen with the same responsibilities as everyone else. ⁓ Technically

Annie: As always. that statement is technically true and it would have been meticulously thought out, no doubt. ⁓ I the other ⁓ sector this story, if we can call it that, is all of this has landed while the family was also reeling from a second scandal ⁓ coming back his mother, Met Marin. So ⁓ when the ⁓ Epstein files were released, ⁓ it Actually, exposed years of contact between the Crown Princess and Jeffrey Epstein. She was linked to these files. And the contact even continued after he'd been convicted as a sex offender. I think one of the emails that she wrote to him was something along the lines of: Would it be inappropriate for me to put up photos of naked women holding a surfboard in my son's room? Very bizarre interaction.

Jodi: Wait, she wrote that or he well yeah, he doesn't have a child, so she must have written that.

Annie: Yes. No, she she wrote she wrote that, sort of seeking his permission as to whether that was a normal thing for a mother to do. Anyway, she later came out, she apologised to the public, to the people of Norway. She says she took responsibility ⁓ for not looking into his background, that she wasn't aware that he was a convicted sex offender, ⁓ she also expressed sympathy for his victims. ⁓

Jodi: Well, what is the lesson in all of this? Never marry a commoner. That's what I take away. Obviously not a obviously not a problem that you or I will ever have. ⁓ but yeah, exactly. No, we love Princess Mary, big fan. ⁓ but ⁓ unsurprisingly, obviously support for the royal family in the wake of Met Marritt's ⁓ you know, alleged interactions with Jeffrey Epstein fell. Apparently they w only had, you know

Annie: I'm not. Commoners are off limits. Unless you're Princess Mary from Tasmania. Yeah.

Jodi: To a record low of 60% was the approval rating during this trial. ⁓ I think it was a quarter of Norwegians said that they would be open to becoming, I guess, whatever their version of a republic is and looking at an entirely different system. But support has sort of seemed to climb back somewhat in Norway for the royal family. It's recovered a little bit since both sagas.

Annie: Yeah, and that's kind of because of Met Maritts Health, isn't it? I mean, this the track record of this family is wild. They're they're they're having a shocking time. because yeah, the mother was actually diagnosed with this chronic incurable lung disease. Doctors basically gave her this horrific assessment about a year ago saying that without a transplant she only

Jodi: ⁓ yeah, the sympathy card. The sympathy card. Yeah, she's real yeah.

Annie: Potentially had 12 months longer to survive. And just days after her son's conviction, the palace had actually come out and confirmed that she did get that lung transplant. He had been fighting for an early release or some sort of exemption to be able to see her. I don't believe he got that. So that illness has kind of softened how Norwegians are talking about this because I think everyone feels really sorry for her.

Jodi: Understandably, I think that's really awful. ⁓ which brings us all back to our own backyard here in Australia, because obviously we started this story by saying it had an Australian or a Sydney link. ⁓ Princess Ingrid Alexandra, who is 22 years old, she's second in line to the throne in Norway, was actually a first-year student at the University of Sydney. She's been living here for the last year, but when her mum's health began to decline, around the same time as her brother's trial,

Annie: Yeah.

Jodi: The princess actually left Australia and returned to Norway. And I think her dad put out a statement saying that, you know, understandably, she kind of just really wanted to be with her mum.

Annie: She's very rarely spoken about this case other than the fact that I think she's been quite defensive of her family and her brother. But she did give one interview to a Norwegian broadcaster, NRK, last year, and I'll read you the quote. She said, of course difficult both for those of us who are around, for me as a sister, and for mum and dad, and of course for everyone affected by the case. She then went on ⁓ to say that it was also really difficult being far away from her family. But then she interrupted herself mid-interview ⁓ and kind of said, don't know if I want to go into much more than that. I mean, fair enough. What what do you say? Like, it's before the courts, the public probably hate him. These are really serious, ugly charges. ⁓ It's a difficult position for a sister to be in. ⁓

Jodi: Yeah, I mean what a case, right? I I I I personally the key takeaway f there are a few key takeaways for

Annie: Yeah.

Jodi: me. The first is never ⁓ never marry a common

Annie: ⁓

Jodi: art fraught with danger. ⁓ The second is I think that we should shift the podcast to just covering international monarchies. ⁓

Annie: We could be one of those royal sort of podcasts. We could get a royal set. They're actually huge. And we can have cups of tea. You can make the scones.

Jodi: Dickie Arbitar.

Annie: ⁓ Yes, yes. ⁓ We'll pick up we left off. But thank you so much for listening this week. was a jam-packed episode once again. As always, if you have any recommendations, feel to get in touch and we'll see you next week.

Jodi: down. Until time, ⁓ common ⁓