Norway’s crown princess has become embroiled in another scandal after newly unsealed files appeared to show her years of extensive contact with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The latest tranche of Epstein files, released on Friday by the US justice department, appear to include nearly 1,000 mentions of the crown princess, Mette-Marit.
The files include scores of emails traded between the two, suggesting they were in contact from 2011 to 2014, the Norwegian daily VG reported. Mette-Marit married the future king of Norway in 2001.
The revelations come at a sensitive time for the royal family. The trial of Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby for rape is due to begin on Tuesday. He was born from a relationship before she married Crown Prince Haakon
Høiby is facing 38 charges, including the alleged rape of four women as well as alleged assault and drug offences. If convicted he could face up to 16 years in prison. Høiby has denied the most serious charges, including those of sexual abuse.
On Saturday, Mette-Marit addressed her relationship with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex crimes against minors.
“I showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing,” she said in a statement issued by the royal palace.
The Norwegian media’s attention was this weekend focused on the many emails that the princess exchanged with Epstein, years after he pleaded guilty to charges that included soliciting prostitution from a minor in Florida.
The emails contained in the files suggested the two were close, with Mette-Marit telling Epstein that “you tickle my brain” in one message and calling him “soft hearted” and “such a sweetheart” in others.
In 2012, Mette-Marit told Epstein he was “very charming” and asked if it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old sons wallpaper?”
Weeks earlier she and Epstein had traded emails about him being on a “wife hunt” in Paris. She replied that the French capital was “good for adultery” and added that “Scandis (are) better wife material”.
In another, she thanked Epstein for flowers he had sent when she was feeling unwell, signing off with “Love, Mm.”
The exchanges regularly made mention of plans to get together, while files indicate she also stayed at his house in Palm Beach, Florida, for four days in 2013 when Epstein was not there.
Inclusion in the files does not imply wrongdoing.
In her statement on Saturday, Mette-Marit, 52, expressed her “deep sympathy and solidarity” with Epstein’s victims and said she was responsible “for not having checked Epstein’s background more closely and not understanding quickly enough what kind of person he was”.
The files, however, include a 2011 exchange in which Mette-Marit told Epstein that she had “Googled” him, adding “it didn’t look too good” along with a smiling emoji. The email did not specify what she had found during her online search.
The palace said Mette-Marit had ended written contact with Epstein in 2014 as she felt he was “trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people”.
As the seven-week trial of her son gets under way in Oslo, the royal couple are not expected to attend. Haakon has told reporters that Mette-Marit would be away on a private trip during that period.
Høiby does not have a royal title and is outside the line of royal succession. Earlier this year, the Norwegian royal court addressed the trial in a statement, saying: “It is for the courts to consider this matter and reach a decision. We have no further comment.”
