New revelations linking Princess Mette-Marit to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender of minors, are causing serious social, political, and moral repercussions in Norway. These revelations come from documents of the U.S. Department of Justice recently made public.

According to the Norwegian newspaper VG, the latest batch of declassified files on the financier, published Friday by U.S. authorities, includes nearly 1,000 references to Mette-Marit’s name.

The documents include dozens of emails exchanged between the two from 2011–2014, suggesting ongoing and close communication.

Her son on trial for rape and other serious crimes

Mette-Marit married then-Crown Prince and now Prince Haakon in 2001, with the revelations coming at a particularly sensitive time for the royal family.

On Tuesday, the trial of her son, Marius Borg Høiby, is set to begin in Oslo. He is accused of rape and other serious crimes.

Høiby, born from Mette-Marit’s previous relationship before her marriage to Prince Haakon, faces a total of 38 charges, including four counts of rape, assault, and drug-related offenses.

If convicted, he could face up to 16 years in prison. He denies the most serious charges, including those of sexual abuse.

“I deeply regret it, it is shameful”

On Saturday, the princess spoke publicly about her relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 in a New York prison while awaiting trial for sexual crimes against minors.

“I showed poor judgment and deeply regret having any contact with Epstein. It is simply shameful,” she said in a statement released by the palace.

Norwegian media focused particularly on the content of the emails, which continued for years after the financier had pleaded guilty in Florida to offenses that included soliciting a minor into prostitution.

In some messages, Mette-Marit appears particularly warm, telling him he “tickles my mind,” calling him “very generous” and “so sweet.”

“Very charming,” she wrote him in 2012

In a 2012 exchange, she called him “very charming” and asked whether it would be “improper for a mother to suggest two naked women holding a surfboard for my 15-year-old son’s computer wallpaper.”

A few weeks earlier, they had discussed Epstein’s “search for a wife” in Paris, with Mette-Marit replying that the French capital is “good for adultery” and that Scandinavian women are “better material for wives.”

In another message, she thanked him for flowers he had sent when she was sick, signing off “With love, Mm.”

The files also show that in 2013 she stayed for four days at Epstein’s Palm Beach, Florida, residence while he was away.

Inclusion in the files, however, does not in itself imply illegal activity. In her statement, the 52-year-old princess expressed “deep sympathy and solidarity” with Epstein’s victims, taking responsibility for “not sufficiently checking his past and not understanding in time what kind of person he was.”

The documents also include a 2011 message exchange in which Mette-Marit mentions that she had “Googled him,” adding that “he didn’t seem so good,” accompanied by a smiling emoji, without further clarification.

The palace stated that the princess ended written communication with Epstein in 2014, when she realized he “was trying to use his relationship with the princess as leverage against third parties.”