- Norway’s crown princess claims Jeffrey Epstein manipulated her.
- Mette Marit admits that she did not check Epstein’s criminal background enough and regrets it.
- The Crown Princess insists her relationship with Epstein was not romantic.
Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit said in an interview aired Friday that she was “manipulated” by convicted American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In an interview for public television NRK, she tried to explain their close relationship. TASR informs about it according to the report of the AFP agency.
Mette-Marit’s name appears in documents related to Epstein, which were released by the Department of Justice in early 2026 under a newly adopted American law. This revealed their close friendship, sparking debate in Norway about whether she could become queen.
“Of course I wish I’d never met him,” said Mette-Marit during an interview lasting about 20 minutes. “It’s very important for me to admit that I didn’t do a better check on his background and also admit that I was manipulated and deceived to such an extent,” she declared.
At the same time, the princess refuted speculations about the nature of their relationship. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty in a Florida court to soliciting a minor for prostitution, for which he was convicted. He was arrested a second time in the US in 2019 and died in custody in a New York prison on August 10 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking. “It was a friendship, he was my friend above all. But if you’re asking if our relationship was of a different nature, the answer is no,” she explained.
Mette-Marit has previously stated that she deeply regrets her relationship with the financier. The Epstein revelations damaged her reputation at the time of her trial with her 29-year-old son Marius Borg Höiby from a previous marriage. Höiby faces 38 charges, including rape and assault of an ex-girlfriend, and faces 16 years in prison. The princess herself has been suffering from chronic pulmonary fibrosis for a long time, and her health condition has deteriorated significantly recently.
