Norway’s crown princess says she was ‘manipulated’ by Epstein in new interview

The Crown Princess of Norway, Mette-Marit, said on Friday that she regretted her friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, after extensive correspondence between the two came to light in recent weeks.

The U.S. Justice Department’s recent release of millions of Epstein-related documents revealed the disgraced financier’s relationships with many powerful and influential people, including the crown princess, among other high-ranking politicians, business executives and diplomats.

During a Friday interview with Norway’s public broadcaster, NRK, the crown princess said she was “manipulated and deceived” by Epstein.

“Of course, I wish I had never met him,” she added.

The files revealed consistent communication between the royal and Epstein, including after he was convicted of child sex trafficking offences in 2008. Previous documents had shown communication between the two, but files released earlier this year uncovered a more extensive relationship than was previously known.

The 52-year-old crown princess has not been accused of any criminal wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

On Friday, Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said it was important Mette-Marit had answered questions about her relationship with Epstein.

“She regretted her contact with him and she was genuinely remorseful. She took responsibility for not having checked his background more thoroughly,” he said in an emailed statement to Reuters.

The princess, who is married to Crown Prince Haakon, the heir to the Norwegian throne, kept in contact with Epstein from 2011 to 2014, and stayed at his Palm Beach house for four days during a private trip in 2013, the Justice Department files show.

“He used the fact that we had a mutual friend, and that I’m gullible. I like to believe the best about people. But I also chose to end contact with him,” Mette-Marit said.

“I’ve never seen anything illegal,” she told NRK.

In one email dated October 2011, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein that she had googled him following his conviction, where she agreed “it didn’t look too good,” and signed off with a smiley face.

When asked about the email by NRK, Mette-Marit said she could not remember why she wrote it.

“But if I had found information that made me realize that he was an abuser and sex offender, I wouldn’t have written a smiley face behind it,” she said during Friday’s interview.

The crown princess has been in poor health recently and is suffering from chronic lung disease that will eventually require a lung transplant.

She is also handling the fallout of the trial of her eldest son, Marius Borg Høiby, from a previous relationship, who is accused of rape and sexual assault.

— With files from Reuters