Mette-Marit says she ‘did not know he was a sex offender’, despite Googling him three years after his prison sentence
Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, has said she was “manipulated and deceived” by Jeffrey Epstein as she spoke publicly for the first time about her years-long relationship with the late sex offender.
She also claimed that she “did not know he was a sex offender or an abuser” – despite telling him in an email in 2011, three years after he had been sentenced to 18 months in prison and pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from girls as young as 14, that she had recently Googled him.
The Epstein files, released in January by the US justice department, have rocked Norway after multiple figures from the highest echelons of society – including Mette-Marit and a former prime minister – were named in them.
On Tuesday, the Norwegian parliament voted unanimously to appoint an independent investigative commission to look into connections between its Foreign Office and Epstein.
