Epstein scandal deals new blow to Norway’s Crown Princess
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Crown Princess Mette-Marit's name appears at least 1,000 times in the new Epstein documents released on Jan 30.
PHOTO: AFP
OSLO – Norway’s Crown Princess, whose son goes on trial on Feb 3 on rape charges, found herself embroiled in another scandal this weekend after newly unsealed files revealed her unexpected friendship with late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The latest scandal has even raised questions about whether Crown Princess Mette-Marit, a commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, could still become queen one day.
Her name appears at least 1,000 times in the millions of new Epstein documents released
Messages between the two published by Norwegian media platforms date from 2011 to 2014.
In one e-mail, she asked Epstein if it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old son’s wallpaper”.
In another, she told Epstein he was “very charming”.
When Epstein told her he was in Paris “on (a) wife hunt” in 2012, she replied saying the French capital is “good for adultery” and “Scandis (are) better wife material”.
Epstein had at that point already pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
The files show the Crown Princess also stayed at Epstein’s house in Florida for four days in 2013.
On Jan 31, she addressed her “embarrassing” friendship with the disgraced financier, who died in 2019 by suicide in jail 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 sent to AFP by the royal palace.
The 52-year-old said she was responsible “for not having checked Epstein’s background more closely and not understanding quickly enough what kind of person he was”.
Yet in 2011, she wrote to Epstein that she had “googled” him, adding “it didn’t look too good” and ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.
She did not specify exactly what she was referring to.
According to the palace, she had ceased contact with Epstein in 2014 because she felt he was “trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people”.
Terrible timing
“It almost gives the impression that they were close friends,” historian and royal expert Ole-Jorgen Schulsrud-Hansen said.
He noted, however, that the broader context of the messages was unknown.
“A crown princess is never a private person,” he noted.
“This shows in any case a lack of judgment and that all the ‘safety catches’ around her also failed.”
On Feb 1, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said he “agreed” that Crown Princess Mette-Marit had made an error in judgment.
“Can Mette-Marit become queen after this?” Mr Kjetil Alstadheim, chief political editor of Norway’s paper of reference Aftenposten, asked in an op-ed piece, leaving the question unanswered.
The timing could not be worse for the Crown Princess.
On Feb 3, her 29-year-old son Marius Borg Hoiby, born from a relationship before her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, goes on trial at Oslo’s district court.
He is accused of allegedly committing 38 crimes
Hoiby denies the most serious charges.
The royal couple will not attend the seven-week trial, and the Crown Prince told reporters that the Crown Princess would be away on a private trip during that period.
These woes come on top of her own health issues.
She has an incurable lung illness, a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis that makes it difficult for her to breathe.
In December, the palace announced that she would most likely have to undergo a lung transplant, a risky operation generally considered a last resort.
“She is someone who is under much pressure. But that should not stop any criticism, if it is factual,” said Mr Schulsrud-Hansen. AFP
