Norway’s crown princess speaks out, alleging she was ‘manipulated and deceived’ by Epstein. 18 hours earlier. Paul Kirby, editor digital pentru Europa Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit told national television she regrets ever meeting the late U.S. sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, ending seven weeks of silence following revelations about her contacts with him. “I feel so manipulated, and when you’re manipulated, you don’t realize it at first,” Mette-Marit said during a 20-minute interview where she was frequently near tears. Seven weeks earlier, Norwegians learned that the crown princess had traded hundreds of emails with the disgraced Epstein from 2011 to 2014 and stayed at his Florida home when he was absent. “It’s extremely important for me to accept responsibility for not scrutinizing his background more thoroughly,” she stated. “And to accept responsibility for being so manipulated and deceived as I was.” She has already apologised and admitted to “poor judgement” after her close ties to Epstein were revealed in the millions of Epstein files released by the US justice department at the end of January. “Of course I wish I had never met him,” the princess told public broadcaster NRK, emphasising that Epstein’s victims deserved justice for the severe abuse they endured. She expressed great anger over not having received it yet. Her choice to speak out publicly followed intense scrutiny and pressure to explain herself, including from Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. The crown princess revealed little in the discussion, with some replies seeming defensive. In 2011, three years after Epstein’s imprisonment for soliciting underage sex, she wrote: “Googled u after last email.” Agree didn’t look too good.”. Seated next to her husband, Crown Prince Haakon, during the interview, Mette-Marit insisted she “didn’t know he was a sex offender or a predator,” despite the reporter noting that a Wikipedia page on Epstein at the time explicitly stated he was a convicted abuser. “I can’t remember this; it was 15 years ago.” NRK.
