Last week the Norwegian market analysis bureau MMI conducted a survey asking 500 Norwegian men whether they would like to have sex with Crown Princess Mette-Marit, the wife of Crown Prince Haakon Magnus.

The results of the survey (requested by the tabloid Dagbladet – at least that is what the tabloid VG, Dagbladet’s chief competitor says) have not yet been disclosed, though some have remarked that with regard to Princess Mette-Marit the question should actually have been: Do you want to have sex with her again? Mette-Marit had quite a reputation before she married into the Norwegian royal family. There is a video where she and a friend show how well nature has endowed them.

The survey also asked whether the men would like to have Mette-Marit as the mother of their children. The Princess’s name figured on a list along with other famous (and sexy) Norwegian women. 500 women were asked the same questions with regard to famous Norwegian men, including Crown Prince Haakon Magnus.

Prior to her marriage with Haakon Magnus in 2001, Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby (born 1973) was a single mother. In the early 1990s she lived with a 15 year older man, but, after this relationship floundered, had a child by another, who was a drug addict. This child, Prince Marius (born 1997), has been adopted by the Crown Prince with whom Mette-Marit has two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra (born 2004) and Prince Sverre Magnus (born 2005).

I doubt whether in Belgium, my country of birth, any paper would dare to ask whether people would like to have sex with Crown Princess Mathilde. There are still a few countries in Europe that have royal families: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Britain, Monaco, Liechtenstein and Spain. Some, like the Norwegian dynasty, are very down to earth and approachable, others, like the Monegasque, are glamourous, and some, like the Belgian, are artificial. It is striking how their image often reflects the type of state in which they have to function.