UPDATED: Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon is a busy man, taking on many more royal duties when both his elderly parents and his wife are ill. He finally took time on Tuesday, though, to answer a few more of the many questions tied to Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s earlier relationship with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Two days later, his father did much the same.
The crown couple had agreed to a short interview with Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) back in March, nearly two months after the release in the US of the so-called “Epstein files” that revealed correspondence between Norway’s crown princess and Epstein between 2011 and 2014. Mette-Marit was on the defensive, though, and many questions either weren’t answered or there wasn’t enough time during the 20-minute session for much if any follow-up.
Since then the couple has either avoided the media or the crown princess has been on sick leave for a chronic lung disease. She didn’t join Tuesday’s also short outdoor session with Crown Prince Haakon, who said he had reacted to the crown princess’ contact with Epstein. He seemed mostly troubled by the way he thinks Epstein used his wife for Epstein’s own social gain.
“There were situations when she felt that he perhaps didn’t wish her well,” the crown prince told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “There were also people who came to her and told her that he wasn’t a good person.”
One of the complaints after the couple’s short interview with NRK in March was tied to Mette-Marit’s overnight visit to Epstein’s lavish home in Palm Beach, Florida. It took place just after New Year 2013, following a family holiday on the island of St Barts. When Haakon and the couple’s children flew home to Norway, Mette-Marit traveled to Florida. While her body guard stayed at a local hotel, she stayed at Epstein’s home even though Epstein wasn’t there when she first arrived.
After he did arrive, Mette-Marit revealed that she’d suddenly felt uncomfortable and even unsafe, and upset enough that she “called Haakon in Oslo.” There was no follow-up as to what it was that upset her, or why she felt unsafe. On Tuesday, Haakon said she still didn’t want to go into detail about what happened. He confirmed, though, that “she called me, and I remember the conversation well.” He added, though, that “it wasn’t a situation with such a high degree of seriousness that we thought we needed to contact the police escort.”
Asked whether he was aware that Crown Princess Mette-Marit continued to have contact with Epstein, even after the episode when she felt unsafe, he responded “yes.” He claimed he “reacted,” apparently negatively, to his wife’s contact with Epstein, and the manner in which he believes Epstein used Norway’s crown princess for his own social gain.
The crown prince said Epstein was “the friend of a friend” of Mette-Marit’s, and that she ultimately broke contact with him for three reasons: She also didn’t like how he used her name in a way that seemed self-serving, that he subjected her to situations in which she thought that he “didn’t wish her well,” and that “someone” (whom he didn’t identify) had told her that Epstein was “not a good person, not about all his violations of the law, but that he wasn’t a good person.”
The crown prince defended his wife’s responses during the brief interview solely with NRK earlier this spring. “She had been wanting to clarify her relation and contact with Epstein,” he said. “I think she did that in a good manner.”
Asked what they’ve learned from the Epstein scandal, Crown Prince Haakon responded that “things can come up that you don’t expect, and that can be challenging. You just have to handle what comes.” Regarding the Epstein issues, he said “we can do something with our routines, and we’re going through them.”
The heir to Norway’s throne also said that “we can be a bit more aware and vigilant, but then there are trenches you don’t want to fall into, or overcompensate for. If you become distrustful, it can be condemning on the wrong basis. That’s not the way I want to live my life.”
The crown prince, who met reporters after ceremoniously handing over the Abel Prize in mathematics at the University of Oslo’s Aula, remains concerned about his wife’s health and said he thinks it has worsened lately. Crown Princess Mette-Marit had been diagnosed with a chronic lung disease, now uses oxygen on a daily basis is preparing for a possible lung transplant.
King Harald confirmed on Thursday that his daughter-in-law “is seriously ill, there’s no doubt about that” when he also met reporters during his latest series of visits to several small municipalities in Western Norway. “We have heard the doctors say that this (her trouble breathing) would come, but we thought and hoped that would happen later, not now. But now it suddenly is.”
Mette-Marit has been been harshly criticized for her extensive contact with the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2011 to 2014. King Harald also responded to a few questions about that, saying he didn’t know about their contact until 2019, when newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) and then more media reported on their relationship.
“I heard about it when you did,” King Harald told reporters on Thursday, “and I don’t know any more than you do.” Asked whether he knew how extensive the contact was before US justice officials finally released the so-called “Epstein files” earlier this year, King Harald said “no, I did not.”
Then he came to his daughter-in-law’s defense, adding that “we must remember that the crown princess hasn’t done anything illegal. And she broke off the contact. As opposed to some others in Norway, she broke off their connection very early, so I think we should give her credit for that.” The “others” King Harald referred to include some former top Norwegian diplomats, politicians and government ministers, even the former president of the Norwegian Parliament and leader of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Thorbjørn Jagland, several of whom now face serious corruption charges.
King Harald has been on the trip to Western Norway alone, after Queen Sonja had to drop out because of a new round of heart trouble. She ended up being admitted to the national hospital in Oslo, but was released on Thursday and the monarch said she was “much better. She was not well when I traveled, and a bit depressed that she couldn’t come along and can’t manage everything she did before.”
Now her medications “were under control” and she’s “much better than when I left.” He had also told those he has met so far in Etne, Samnanger and Vaksdal that the queen deeply regrets not being there, too, joking that everyone would have to put up just with him. His tour ended with a visit to Askvoll on Thursday.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
