Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has, for the first time, addressed her connection to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in front of journalists and said she was “manipulated and deceived” by him. She also said that during a 2013 stay at a Florida home of the convicted paedophile, she felt unsafe to the extent that she called her husband, Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, at home. Haakon is the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne.
The statements were made during the royal couple’s sit-down with Norwegian broadcaster NRK on Thursday. It came as the royal family had been at the fore of severe scrutiny due to the Crown Princess’s friendship with Epstein. Though she has not been accused of wrongdoing, their connection has raised multiple questions.
“Of course, I wish I had never met him,” she told NRK. “It is extremely important for me to acknowledge that I did not look into his past more carefully, and also to acknowledge that I was manipulated and deceived to such an extent.”
The princess said she feels a sense of guilt for the paedophile’s victims and has spent years processing their friendship and the charges against him. Mette-Marit told NPK that she takes responsibility for not researching his background thoroughly.
Last month, the Esptein files that have been released by the US Justice Department, revealed many email exchanges between Epstein and Norway’s Crown Princess, with some being flirty in nature. The exchanges happened in 2012, almost a decade after Mette-Marit’s marriage to the Norwegian Crown Prince.
In one of the emails, the paedophile wrote to her that he was wife-hunting. And in another, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein that he always makes her smile “because you tickle my brain”.
Another set of exchanges from 2013 showed that the princess had borrowed an Epstein-owned property in Palm Beach, Florida, for several days. To this, Mette-Marit, said that the stay was arranged via a mutual friend, and it was during this trip that left her feeling unsafe to the point that she rang her husband at home.
Mette-Marit said in 2019 that she had been friends with the sex offender between 2011 and 2013. During the NPK interview, she refused to elaborate on what made her unsafe in 2013 but said that her continued contact with the paedophile was because she had been manipulated and was gullible.
“I’m not the one to feel sorry for,” the 52-year-old princess told NPK. “It’s all the victims who’ve been subjected to these serious abuses who deserve justice.”
The remarks were made on the same day a criminal trial against Marit’s son, Marious Borg Hoiby, ended. He is her son from a previous relationship and is facing as many as 38 charges, including raping four women and alleged assault and drug offences. Prosecutors have sought a prison sentence of seven years and seven months, though Hoiby has denied the rape allegations. A verdict is expected in early June.
