Crown Princess Mette-Marit finds herself in an uncomfortable place. Her son, Marius Borg Høiby, is on trial, and her personal connections to Jeffrey Epstein have been reanalyzed after a trove of documents shared by the U.S. Department of Justice revealed a friendship between the two, years after he was convicted of soliciting a minor.
The Norwegian Royal House has finally revealed its strategy. As soon as the case involving her son was submitted for judgment, Mette-Marit invited journalists from the public broadcaster NRK to her home in Skaugum. There, she addressed the extent of her contact with Epstein between the years 2011 and 2014.
The interview, limited to 20 minutes due to her health, was highly anticipated. According to NRK, the Crown Prince and Princess gave the publication full editorial freedom, with no outside review before publication.
Mette-Marit also addressed her decision to step back from official duties as her pulmonary fibrosis, diagnosed in 2018, has worsened. “We are a family that has gone through a very difficult time in recent weeks,” she said, as reported by our sister website HOLA! Spain.
© NRK“Our priority has been family. I am the mother of a young man in a very difficult situation, and I also have health issues that require rest. My condition has deteriorated.” That comment was her only reference to her son, with the focus of the interview relating to her connection to Epstein.
Sitting alongside her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, Mette-Marit faced direct questions supported by emails, photos, and documents.
“It is very important to me to take responsibility for not looking more closely into his background,” she said. “And for allowing myself to be manipulated and deceived. But I want to be clear: I bear no guilt in what happened. The victims deserve justice, and it makes me deeply angry that they have not received it. At the same time, if anything I did contributed to legitimizing him in any way, that is very difficult for me.”
© NRKMette-Marit explained that Epstein was introduced to her through mutual contacts in global health circles. “It’s my responsibility that I didn’t investigate enough,” she said.
She described their connection as purely platonic. “It was a friendship. He was a friend of a friend. If you’re asking whether it was anything more, the answer is no.” Addressing emails that some interpreted as flirtatious, she said she saw them as friendly in tone.
Documents also showed she had searched for information about Epstein online after his first conviction. She said she does not recall what she found. “If I had come across information that made me understand he was an abuser, I would not have responded the way I did,” she said, insisting she was unaware of his criminal history.
Mette-Marit explains her visit to Epstein’s home in Florida
© LISE ASERUDNorwegian media later revealed that she visited Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, Florida, in January 2013. “A mutual friend had borrowed the house. That’s why I was there,” she said.
Mette-Marit admitted that the experience has weighed on her since 2019, when she became aware of the full extent of the abuse. “Epstein behaved toward me in a way I didn’t like,” she said, emotional. “On the last day of our stay, he put me in a situation that made me feel so unsafe that I called Haakon. I did stay in contact with him for a while after that. I think it’s because he was manipulative, and we had a mutual friend. I tend to believe the best in people, but I eventually cut off contact.”
One of the most controversial exchanges surfaced in emails from October 2012. In one message, Epstein wrote that he was “looking for a wife,” sharing his preference for Scandinavian women. Mette-Marit replied: “Paris is a good place for infidelity. Scandinavians make better wives, but what do I know?”
She dismissed the exchange as “a joke between friends… a friendly tone that became vulgar.”
She also expressed gratitude for the support of King Harald and Queen Sonja, and said she hopes the episode has not damaged people’s trust in the monarchy.
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