Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit has publicly addressed her relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for the first time, expressing regret and claiming she was 'manipulated and deceived'. In a televised interview with NRK alongside her husband Crown Prince Haakon, she acknowledged poor judgment but insisted she did not know Epstein was an abuser.
The interview comes after the release of the Epstein files in January, which named several prominent Norwegians, including Mette-Marit. She appears nearly 1,000 times in the files in personal emails from 2011 to 2014. In one exchange, she asked about a wallpaper for her son. The Norwegian parliament has since voted to establish an independent commission to investigate connections between the foreign office and Epstein.
Mette-Marit, who has pulmonary fibrosis, said she felt 'great anger' that Epstein's victims had not received justice. She denied any intimacy with Epstein but admitted staying at his Palm Beach home in 2013, which she described as difficult to process. The crown princess also addressed her son Marius Borg Høiby's ongoing trial, noting the added strain.
When asked about an email where she wrote 'Googled you after the previous email. Agreed, it didn’t look good :)', she said she could not remember the context but insisted she would not have written a smiley if she had known he was a sex offender. She reiterated that she was unaware of his criminal history despite his 2008 conviction for soliciting minors.
