The Crown Princess of Norway faced her own Prince Andrew moment when she was questioned about her friendship with Jeffrey Epstein in a dramatic TV interview.
Like the ex-Duke of York’s train-wreck Newsnight interview in 2019, the Scandinavian royal’s on-air reckoning is the culmination of a larger increase in media scrutiny over his relationship with Epstein.
Mette-Marit, 52, She said she was manipulated and tricked by Epstein, in an emotional effort to prevent the fallout from her relationship with the late sex offender.
He In the interview, which aired today on public broadcaster NRK, he said he regretted his “very friendly relationship” with the disgraced financier.
mete-mariet As the Norwegian family grappled with the huge scandal of her affair with Epstein, she said, “Of course, I wish I had never met him.”
The princess said: “I feel very manipulated, and when you are manipulated, you don’t realize it from the beginning.”
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He added, “It is incredibly important for me to take responsibility for not investigating her background more carefully.
“And take responsibility for being manipulated and deceived like I was.”
The princess was forced to apologize after the Epstein files revealed a series of incriminating messages between the royal and the late sex offender.
When the pedophile financier revealed he was “looking for a wife” she told Epstein “you make me smile” in flirty email exchanges.
mete-mariet He also wrote to her saying that Paris was “good for adultery” and suggested that Scandinavian women might make “better wife material”.
In the interview the Princess said that she “did not know he was a sex offender or predator” during their friendship.
The pair exchanged hundreds of emails between 2011 and 2014.
And the Norwegian princess even stayed at Epstein’s Florida home when he was not there.
Epstein was convicted in 2008 of soliciting a minor for prostitution, with a plea deal that allowed him to register as a sex offender.
When the interviewer pointed out that Epstein’s convictions were clearly visible on the disgraced financier’s Wikipedia page at the time of their friendship with Mété-Marit, she said: “I don’t remember that; it was 15 years ago.”
In 2011, she wrote in an email to Epstein: “Googled you after the last email. Agreed, didn’t feel too good.”
When asked why she stayed at the disgraced financier’s Palm Beach home in 2013, mete-mariet Said to be caused by a mutual friend of the couple.
He added, “Epstein was a close friend of a good friend of mine.”
The royal mentioned an ominous “situation” that made her feel uneasy on the last day of her stay in Florida.
But she refused to divulge details of the incident, except to say that she had called her husband about it.
Crown Prince Haakon told the interviewer that he remembered her call well, adding that it made his wife feel “unsafe”.
The princess remained in contact with Epstein after the “situation”, but said she eventually broke up with him because of it.
mete-mariet Said: “I over-trust, I think the best of people.”
“But I also decided to end all direct contact with him.
“And it was because of such episodes.”
It comes as the son of a scandal-hit Scandi royal faces up to 16 years in jail as he faces rape charges.
Marius Borg Hoiby, 29, has been charged with 38 counts including rape, sexual assault and domestic violence in one of Norway’s biggest trials in decades.
He pleaded not guilty to four rape charges in Oslo District Court last month.
