Norwegian Crown Princess Addresses “Embarrassing” Friendship with Jeffrey Epstein Amid Son’s Trial

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has issued a public apology following the release of U.S. court documents that reveal extensive communication with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The disclosure comes at a sensitive time, as her son prepares to face trial on serious charges.

According to a report by Norwegian newspaper VG, the Crown Princess’s name appears over a thousand times in the newly unsealed files from the U.S. Department of Justice. The documents, released Friday, show a series of emails and messages exchanged between Mette-Marit and Epstein from 2011 to 2014 years after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting a minor for prostitution.

The correspondence includes personal remarks from the princess. In one email, she asked Epstein if it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15-year-old son’s wallpaper.” In another, she described him as “very charming.” The files also indicate she stayed at his Florida residence for four days in 2013, though Epstein was reportedly absent at the time.

On Saturday, the 52-year-old royal acknowledged the relationship in a statement released by the palace, calling it “simply embarrassing.”

“I showed poor judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein,” she stated. “I am responsible for not having checked Epstein’s background more closely and not understanding quickly enough what kind of person he was.”

This admission appears somewhat at odds with a 2011 email she sent to Epstein, in which she wrote she had “googled” him and noted, “It didn’t look too good,” ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.

The palace clarified that Mette-Marit cut off contact in 2014, believing Epstein was “trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people.”

Royal historian Ole-Jorgen Schulsrud-Hansen commented on the situation, stating, “A crown princess is never a private person. This shows in any case a lack of judgment.”

The controversy emerges as the Crown Princess faces a profoundly difficult period in her personal life. Her son, 29-year-old Marius Borg Hoiby from a relationship prior to her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon is set to stand trial Tuesday in Oslo. He faces 38 charges, including the alleged rape of four women, assault, and drug offenses, and could face up to 16 years in prison if convicted. Hoiby denies the most serious allegations.

The royal couple will not attend the seven-week trial, with the palace stating Crown Prince Haakon will handle official duties and Mette-Marit will be away on a private trip.

Adding to her burdens, the Crown Princess has been managing a serious health condition a rare, incurable form of pulmonary fibrosis. In December, the palace announced she would likely require a risky lung transplant.

The confluence of events places the royal family under intense scrutiny, with the princess’s past judgment now facing public examination alongside her family’s current legal challenges.