Last Friday’s declassification has a new and unexpected protagonist: Princess Mette-Marit of Norway and, by extension, the country’s royal family. The businessman’s files – which supposedly – leave a trail of pages with the name of the princess, which is mentioned around a thousand times in them. The two exchange dozens of emails, in a friendly, very close tone (she calls him “charming”) and that borders on flirting, for years. They see each other occasionally, although, apparently, she did not visit the well-known island where numerous sexual crimes were committed. They both tell each other intimate things: he worries about her health; her, for finding a partner. In an email, she even tells him: “Paris is good for adultery.” In another, he to her, in reference to the works of Nabokov, author of Lolita: “Now I see why you like these books.”
The wife of Haakon of Norway, the heir to the throne, was known to have had a relationship with Epstein; herself. Then he talked about a relationship between 2011 and 2013 and a meeting. Now, the papers show that there were several meetings (it seems that in New York, Miami and Oslo) and also that it lasted longer; In fact, just on Friday – six years after that first forgiveness – the palace stated that it would last until 2014. On Saturday, the princess, 52, once again asked for a public apology. At the moment, there is no evidence that Haakon, also 52, met or wrote to the pedophile.
The documents reveal that the relationship between Mette-Marit of Norway and Jeffrey Epstein began in January 2011; At that time they were 37 and 58 years old, respectively. Then, a list of visitors to the Davos forum shows that a man named Boris Nikolic, a scientific consultant to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation, coincided with Mette-Marit at the Swiss meeting (a leak among the papers shows this). A month and a half later, at the end of February, Nikolic contacted the businessman to ask if he would be in New York in March. “A friend” is going to visit him. “It is not the typical royal, “She’s twisted,” she says, along with a Google search about her. It’s Mette-Marit.
They must have known each other, therefore, because the exchange of leaked messages began around autumn 2011. There is no doubt that the princess is herself: she uses her official email from the Norwegian royal house for the exchange. “I looked you up on Google,” the princess tells the businessman in one of her first communications. In December of that year, for example, he wishes her Christmas wishes. “[Desde la] “Jeff’s Island?”, she answers, knowing, therefore, the existence of the place. “Yes,” he answers.
As can be seen in the exchange, both knew their agendas, their events and their plans well. They had their phones. In September 2012, the princess sent him a mail to his friend. “I’m dying of boredom. Come save us,” he writes, in the plural. He also does not hesitate to mock how “boring” it was – in October 2012 – and now, about Luxembourg: “It was like a kind of old movie.”
At times, conversations seem to border on flirtation. That month, he writes to her: “Are you coming?” She responds, “There are no excuses tonight.” A month later, he asks her. “What’s the weather like? I’m hunting for wives. Paris is interesting, but I prefer the Scandinavian ones,” he says. She responds that same day: “Ice cream. It snowed yesterday. Paris is good for adultery. Scandinavian wives are better material.” He also tells him, in another mail: “I’m still trying to get over the shock that you are looking for a wife.” It seems that that month he went to Oslo and was with some girls of 24 and 25 years old, and he wrote it to the princess, who asks him to tell her more the next day. When a month later he writes her another email, he sends her a photograph, which does not appear in the files of the United States Department of Justice. She responds: “I am very impressed with your new technological skills.”
There is also an exchange of messages whose protagonist is . The heir’s wife asks Jeffrey Epstein: “Is it inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard as wallpaper for my 15-year-old son?” He replies: “Let him decide. A mother should stay out of that.” Now, more than 13 years later, and another thirty charges, which will make him go to trial starting next week and which could put him in jail.
Mette-Marit and Jeffrey Epstein met at the tycoon’s Palm Beach mansion. In January 2013, a gives the exact details of the flight, the time and the pick-up of the princess to “take her to PB’s house”, in reference to Epstein’s residence. She also tells him, later, what her return home was like, and a few weeks later she says, “Anyway, are you coming to see me soon? I miss my crazy friend.”
Epstein knew about the princess from her and others. There is Nikolic sending information to the tycoon about a neck operation she underwent in 2013. “I will keep you informed. I am talking to Haakon non-stop and he will be with her during the operation,” she tells him, in one of the few references to the prince. Shortly after, she writes to him, thanking him “for the beautiful flowers,” and sending him “love.”
If the princess’s December 2019 apologies were not entirely clear, those now, six years later, have not been convincing to the Norwegian people either. The royal house has sent a statement to the media in which she states: “Jeffrey Epstein is responsible for his actions. I must take responsibility for not having investigated his background better and for not having understood quickly enough what kind of person he was. I deeply regret this and it is a responsibility that I must take. I showed poor judgment and I regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply shameful.” However, the princess herself told Epstein in an email that she knew who he was and had searched for him on Google. But it seems that neither she nor her assistants were able to know that and for transporting people between states with the aim of prostitution (a crime in the United States). Then, he spent 13 months in jail, although he finally reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office.
It is not exactly the best time for the Norwegian royal house. The monarchy of the small country, with less than six million inhabitants, is surrounded by scandals: King Harald, about to turn 89 and with a long history, refuses to abdicate. His first-born daughter, Marta Luisa of Norway, denounced racism and family misunderstanding. But the worst part goes to the heirs, Haakon and his wife, Mette-Marit. She is sick, she has been suffering from pulmonary fibrosis since 2018, which probably . But above all there is Marius: the princess’s eldest son, 29 years old and born from a previous relationship, is accused of (including sexist violence and drug trafficking) in a trial that will start this Tuesday, and to which the royal family seems to turn a blind eye.
In addition to the Norwegian monarchy already finished off at the exit of the , there are others who are splashed with the mud of Jeffrey Epstein. Last December, , wife of Carlos Felipe (youngest son of Kings Carlos Gustavo and Silvia), decided not to attend the ceremony to hand over . It happened in 2005, when she didn’t know the prince (they married in 2015; they now have four children) and she was an aspiring actress. The royal house confirmed that they had been introduced, without further ado, and that they had not had contact in 20 years.
Jump to December 2019. A series of FBI questions are exchanged about Epstein’s information published in the Norwegian press, about someone (the name is blacked out) traveling on Epstein’s private jet “on numerous occasions.” It reads: “Has there been contact between the FBI and the Norwegian government […] about Jeffrey Epstein or Princess Mette-Marit? “The answer is not clear. With a thousand documents, there are still questions to be resolved.
