Princess Mette-Marit breaks her silence on her relationship with Jeffrey Epstein

Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has given her first interview on her history with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, sitting down with NRK for 20 minutes at Skaugum Estate yesterday. “Of course, I wish I had never met him,” she said during the conversation.

Mette-Marit sat for an interview on the same day the trial of her son Marius Borg Høiby concluded at Oslo District Court, but she didn’t explicitly discuss the trial. “We are a family that has been in a very demanding situation in recent weeks. For us, the focus has been primarily on the family,” she said. “I am the mother of a young man who has been in a very demanding situation. In addition, I have health that requires a lot of rest. And it has developed even more.”

While the conversation largely focused on Epstein, the princess also addressed her health. She has dealt with pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic lung disease, since 2018, and is preparing for a lung transplant. “I live with a serious illness, and it is what characterizes my everyday life now. It is what determines whether I can even stand in my role or not,” she said. “But I have great faith in the importance of the monarchy in Norway. And I have great faith that trust is one of the finest values of our society. And I really hope that over time this does not weaken trust in the institution. That would be very sad for me.”

Crown Prince Haakon was by Mette Marit’s side throughout the interview, and he occasionally shared his thoughts. Here are the 5 key takeaways from the broadcast:

1. She trusted the friends who introduced her to Epstein.

Epstein in 2004.

Epstein and Princess Mette-Marit were introduced in 2011, through what she calls “several” mutual acquaintances. “They all worked in global health and organizational life. They were people I trusted and trusted their judgment,” she shared. She didn’t reveal who introduced her, but said, “It is important for me to maintain my own integrity in this. So I will not release any other names or try to blame anyone else. It is my responsibility that I did not investigate well enough.”

She emphasized her need to take responsibility multiple times throughout the interview.

“It is incredibly important for me to take responsibility for not checking his background more carefully. And to take responsibility for being so manipulated and deceived as I was,” the Crown Princess said about Epstein, before adding that it isn’t about her, but the victims who “have been subjected to the gross abuses who deserve justice.”

“I feel such great anger that they haven't received it. At the same time, it’s important for me to say that if I’ve done something that has contributed to giving him legitimacy in some way, it’s terribly difficult for me, of course,” she said.

2. Princess Mette-Marit says she did not know Epstein was a convicted sex offender.

Mette-Marit in 2011.

NRK asked Princess Mette-Marit specific questions about various emails that were revealed in the Epstein files, including an October 2011 message in which she wrote, “Googled you after the previous email. Agreed, it didn’t look good :)”

Mette-Marit said of that email, “I spent a lot of time trying to figure that out myself. I wish I had the rest of that email correspondence. I don't know what I found, and I don't know if it was information he had asked me to Google. I wish I had remembered what it was, it would probably have made my life a little easier now…But if I had found information that made me realize that he was an abuser and sex offender, I wouldn’t have written a smiley face behind it.”

When NRK followed up, asking, “The Wikipedia article on Epstein at the time stated that he was a convicted rapist. Could it have appeared when the Crown Princess Googled?” She replied, “It’s hard for me to say, because I can't remember. But I didn't know he was a sex offender or an abuser, if that's what you're asking.”

3. An incident happened at Epstein’s home in Palm Beach that made her feel unsafe.

An aerial view of Palm Beach, Florida.

“A mutual friend of ours had borrowed the house. That’s why I went there,” Princess Mette-Marit said of her visit to Epstein’s home in Palm Beach, tearing up during this portion of the interview. “If I may add, it is one of the things I have spent the most time processing after the serious abuses became known in 2019. The fact that I have been there and, not least, have a sense of guilt for the victims. I have spent a lot of time processing this. So it is very difficult for me personally and has actually been since 2019, when I became aware of the serious abuses.”

While she says she did not witness anything illegal during that stay, she did reveal, “Epstein behaved towards me in a way that I didn’t like. I can’t hide that.”

She continued, “When he arrived on the last day of our stay in Palm Beach, he put me in a situation that made me so insecure that I called Haakon’s house… But I had contact with him for a while after that. I think it was probably because he was so manipulative that he used the fact that we had a mutual friend. That I am gullible. I like to believe the best about people. But I also chose to end contact with him, and it was because of episodes like that.”

Haakon added that he remembers the call. “I remember the conversation. It was a situation she was put in that made her feel unsafe and didn’t really want to be there anymore,” he said. NRK clarified that as far as they understand, it was “not an assault,” but the Princess did not expand further on the situation.

4. Mette-Marit clarified the reason she complained to Epstein about her royal role.

Princess Mette Marit, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Haakon, 2025.

In some of the emails released in the files, Mette-Marit expresses frustration to Epstein about her life as a member of the royal family. In the interview with NRK, the Princess said she found it “embarrassing” and “challenging” that these emails, in particular, were made public.

In one, for example, the Princess complains of attending a “boring wedding” in October 2012. “I don’t really want to go into the content of the various emails, because that... That’s one of the things I find most challenging that has come out. Because I don't want people I respect and love to be hurt in any way.”

She also added, “I was in a period then where I found my role to be quite demanding. I experienced Epstein as someone I could somehow trust in a demanding phase of my life. I was very, very wrong there. And I think one of the worst things for me is that I seem so ungrateful. So... I think it’s been quite challenging to get a lot of these emails published.”

5. She also reveals why her friendship with Epstein ended.

Undated pictures provided by the US Department of Justice on January 30, 2026 as part of the Epstein files.

The two ceased contact in summer 2014; the Princess said it was because “I [felt] so manipulated. And when you are manipulated, you don’t realize it from the start. It’s information that comes to you at different times. I think I see more today how manipulated I was. Of course it takes time to process. But there were a number of events that made me think ‘this is not good.’”

She continued, “Then I heard some more rumors that he wasn't a good person. Never that he was an abuser, but that he wasn’t a good person. All of that together made me want to break off contact. But we had a mutual friend. I experienced him as caring towards this friend. That probably made me stay in touch with him longer than I wanted to.”

Prince Haakon confirmed that he knew about the extent of his wife’s contact with Epstein. “Yes, I knew that they knew each other, that they had met each other in the United States. And he was here, the Crown Princess showed him Frogner Park. I met him myself once when we were on a family vacation in St. Barths. Then we met him on the street, a brief meeting. And I also knew that the Crown Princess lived in the house in Palm Beach,” he said. “So this was no secret between us, of course. I also heard that the Crown Princess found this complicated. She eventually stopped trusting Epstein and came to the conclusion that this was a person who did not wish her well, and that this led to her breaking off contact with him.”