Norway’s crown princess has opened up about her friendship with Jeffrey Epstein following royal blowback over her ties to the late sex offender.
Mette-Marit, 52, said she was conned by the well-connected financier in a sitdown with public broadcaster NRK that aired on Friday, as public pressure continued to mount after her name appeared hundreds of times in the Epstein files.
“I was manipulated and deceived,” she said in an interview next to her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, at their home near Oslo. “Of course, I wish I had never met him.”
Mette-Marit said she met Epstein through mutual friends in 2011, years after he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor.
“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,” she told NRK.
In an October 2011 email exchange, Mette-Marit told Epstein that she Googled him and it “didn’t look too good : )”
The crown princess told NRK that she could no longer recall what she found out about Epstein from the Google search.
“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.
In another thread dated November 2012, Mette-Marit told Epstein, “U are very charming u know,” and asked him, “Is it inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old sons wallpaper ?”
Mette-Marit apologized to the king and queen last month for her friendship with Epstein. Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre also said the crown princess showed “bad judgment.”
The NRK interview was filmed on Thursday, the same day that Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship, Marius Borg Høiby, appeared in court for the final day of his trial. The 29-year-old is accused of rape and domestic abuse, for which he pleaded not guilty. He admitted to some lesser offenses, including drug possession and driving violations.
The sitdown was limited to 20 minutes due to Mette-Marit’s pulmonary fibrosis, which causes serious breathing problems.
