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Royal experts warned that Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s attempt to frame her ties to Jeffrey Epstein as an “incidental brush with a bad guy” is unraveling, after newly unsealed documents reignited scrutiny of her judgment and credibility.
Mette-Marit was mentioned in over 1,000 files recently released from multiple investigations into the late-financier. Mette-Marit was involved in “contact and meetings” with Epstein between 2011 and 2013 and continued communication with him into 2014, according to the Norwegian outlet VG.
The document release has compounded pressure on Norway’s royal family as questions mount over her past and her future role.
“Jeffrey Epstein is solely responsible for his actions. I must take responsibility for not having investigated Epstein’s background more thoroughly, and for not realizing sooner what kind of person he was,” Mette-Marit said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
PRINCESS SOFIA OF SWEDEN MET JEFFREY EPSTEIN A FEW TIMES BUT DENIES ANY TIES, PALACE SAYS
Crown Princess Mette-Marit is facing renewed scrutiny over her ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein. (Per Ole Hagen / Getty Images)
“I deeply regret this, and it is a responsibility I must bear. I showed poor judgment and regret having had any contact with Epstein at all. It is simply embarrassing. I wish to express my deep sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the abuse committed by Jeffrey Epstein.”
The never-before-seen communications between Mette-Marit and Epstein surfaced in the latest batch of documents released by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ released more than three million Epstein records, including his personal emails, Friday.
Mette-Marit’s apology likely will “deepen the crisis” because it draws attention to the timeline of her contact with Epstein, royal commentator Amanda Matta told Fox News Digital.
“This is actually her second time apologizing for her relationship with him, and it will now be ten times harder to file this away as an incidental brush with a bad guy,” Matta explained. “The newly released emails, more extensive than what the public previously understood, open many, many channels to question the Crown Princess’s judgment. Why did she keep contact going? Why didn’t she ‘understand more quickly’ what Epstein was, and that he was not the sort of person she would want to be publicly associated with?”
Jeffrey Epstein and Mette-Marit continued communication into 2014, despite the palace claiming correspondence ended in 2013. (Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)
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Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway is married to Crown Prince Haakon of Norway. (Michael Campanella / Getty Images)
Experts specifically questioned Mette-Marit’s timeline of contact after she previously claimed contact with Epstein ceased in 2013.
“And then we also have to investigate whether the palace’s previous framing was incomplete,” she said. “They previously stated that MM’s last contact with JE was in 2013, and we now see that it was actually 2014. The public now knows that they weren’t told the whole truth the first time, and palace officials are painting this as a ‘mistake’ or ‘accident.’ But trust is being eroded in the process. Even if there was no wrongdoing, that will leave a bad taste in people’s mouths.”
Multiple royals have been tied to Epstein, including former Prince Andrew and Sweden’s Princess Sofia. The Royal Court of Sweden admitted that Princess Sofia did meet with Epstein on multiple occasions but had no ties to the convicted sex offender.
“Sofia was introduced a few times around 2005, didn’t accept an invite to gatherings with him, and hasn’t had contact for 20 years,” Matta said. “Mette Marit was voluntarily and enthusiastically close with Epstein.”
Mette-Marit’s Epstein ties create a different situation for the crown princess than Princess Sofia, according to a royal commentator. (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)
The email drop including Mette-Marit couldn’t have come “at a worse time,” royal commentator Meredith Constant told Fox News Digital.
“That’s on top of the fact that her son was just arrested on another charge ahead of his trial,” she added. “This crisis with The Crown Princess makes Princess Märtha Louis and Shaman Durek’s documentary last year look quaint.”
The son of Norway’s crown princess pleaded not guilty to rape charges as he went on trial Tuesday for multiple alleged offenses, opening weeks of proceedings in a case that has cast a shadow on the royal family’s image.
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Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Hoiby, is on trial. (Julian Parker / UK Press)
Marius Borg Høiby, 29, is the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and the stepson of the heir to the throne, Crown Prince Haakon. Høiby has no royal title or official duties.
“Coupled with her son’s ongoing trial and new arrests, I honestly don’t know what the path forward looks like for Mette-Marit,” Matta said.
“Norwegians are already openly questioning whether she is fit to be queen after this,” the royal expert added. “25 years ago, the same questions were being asked about her prior to her wedding. If the royal house isn’t treating this as a full-blown crisis, they should be.”
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.