Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit was publicly apologizing during the weekend, after it became known that she\u2019d exchanged hundreds of personal emails with the late convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. The emails, some of which contain foul language and an unusual closeness between the two, were being made public just days before her own son, Marius Borg H\u00f8iby, goes on trial for 38 counts of criminal acts including rape and sexual assault.<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s the latest in a series of scandals<\/a><\/strong> to hit the Norwegian royal family, and it\u2019s generating widespread public criticism of Norway\u2019s future queen. The release in the US of the so-called \u201cEpstein files,\u201d which chronicle how the wealthy former financier cultivated relationships for personal gain and to clear his name, has also revealed extensive contact between Epstein and Crown Princess Mette-Marit from 2011 to 2013.<\/p>\n The crown princess has earlier claimed she didn\u2019t know about Epstein\u2019s criminal past and exploitation of young women,<\/a> but recently released email communication confirms that she had looked into his past in 2011 and even wrote to him at the time that it \u201cdidn\u2019t look too good,\u201d followed by a smiley face. Norwegian state broadcaster NRK and other media were also reporting on Sunday how Epstein and Mette-Marit had met on several occasions, wrote to and spoke with each other often, and how she even spent four days at his lavish estate in Palm Beach, Florida in 2013.<\/p>\n In one exchange in October 2012, Epstein had written that he was in Paris looking for a wife. She responded that it was \u201cfreezing\u201d in Oslo, that Paris was \u201cgood for adultery\u201d and that Scandinavians were \u201cbetter wife material. But then again, who am I to talk?\u201d She also wrote to him in 2012 that she thought he was \u201ccharming,\u201d to which he replied \u201cI know.\u201d<\/p>\n Mette-Marit\u2019s husband, Crown Prince Haakon, meanwhile, is only known to have met Epstein on one occasion, when the crown couple was on holiday in St Barts in the Caribbean and they ran into him on the street. Palace officials claimed during the weekend that Mette-Marit never visited Epstein on his private island in the Caribbean, where he\u2019s known to have abused and exploited young women. In another email released along with thousands of others, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein: \u201cI miss you, my crazy friend.\u201d<\/p>\n After initially admitting regret over<\/strong> what both she and Royal Palace officials called \u201cpoor judgment\u201d over her relationship with Epstein, Mette-Marit has now confirmed \u201cborrowing\u201d Epstein\u2019s estate in Palm Beach and apologized for all the contact they had. She said she now regrets having had any contact with Epstein, even calling their relationship \u201cembarrassing\u201d in retrospect.<\/p>\n Commentators were not forgiving, with author and veteran editor Harald Stanghelle among those criticizing Mette-Marit for \u201cmore than just poor judgment and embarrassing.\u201d Epstein had initially been convicted for sexual assaults in 2008 and seemed intent on rebuilding a network of powerful and entitled people around him including various royals like Mette-Marit, who\u2019d been a single mother working in a restaurant when she met Crown Prince Haakon in the late 1990s. They married in 2001 and should be celebrating their silver wedding anniversary in August.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsinenglish.no\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/51833297872_b589b9b3c1_c-e1732054643503.jpg\")
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