OSLO, Norway (AFP)—Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit said in an interview broadcast Friday that she was “manipulated” by convicted US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whom she accused of extorting others.

A commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, Mette-Marit’s name appears multiple times in Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice earlier this year.

The files revealed an unexpectedly close friendship between the pair and raised questions in Norway about whether Mette-Marit can become queen, with recent polls showing that a majority of Norwegians oppose the idea.

“Of course I wish I had never met him,” she told public broadcaster NRK during the roughly 20-minute interview, her first since the scandal broke in Norway.

“It is extremely important for me to acknowledge that I did not look into his past more carefully, and also to acknowledge that I was manipulated and deceived to such an extent,” she said.

She also sought to squash speculation about the nature of her relationship with Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution and died in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking.

“It was a friendly relationship: above all, he was a friend to me. But if your question is whether the relationship had another nature, the answer is no,” she said.

Mette-Marit has previously said in written statements that she deeply regretted her friendship with the disgraced financier.

– Smiley and tears –

According to email exchanges published in the Norwegian media, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein in 2011 that she had “googled” him, adding “it didn’t look too good” and ending the sentence with a smiley emoji.

Epstein had been convicted three years earlier and served just over a year in prison.

Speaking to NRK, with tears occasionally welling up in her eyes and her husband Crown Prince Haakon seated next to her, Mette-Marit said she could not remember that specific email.

In 2012, when Epstein told Mette-Marit he was in Paris “on (a) wife hunt”, she replied that the French capital is “good for adultery” and “Scandis (are) better wife material”.

And in 2013, she and a friend stayed at Epstein’s house in Palm Beach, Florida, for four days.

Asked about the seemingly intimate tone of her emails with the financier, Mette-Marit said it was about “camaraderie” and she found her now published correspondence “embarrassing”.

She said she ended their friendship after several incidents, the details of which she did not disclose.

She felt “a little unsafe” after one of the incidents in Palm Beach, Prince Haakon said.

“I had come to understand that this was a bad person, whom people should not be in contact with. And I had seen up close how he was using extortion against others,” she said in the written version of the interview published on NRK’s website.

“I’m not the one to feel sorry for,” the princess said. “It’s all the victims who’ve been subjected to these serious abuses who deserve justice.”

– Questions unanswered –

The 52-year-old princess is already dealing with the legal woes of her son, Marius Borg Hoiby, whose trial ended on Thursday.

Born from a relationship prior to her marriage to Haakon in 2001, the 29-year-old is accused of four rapes and assaults against ex-girlfriends, allegations he denies, as well as a slew of other minor offences.

Prosecutors have called for a seven-year, seven-month prison sentence, with the verdict due in June.

The crown princess also suffers from an incurable lung disease that makes it difficult for her to breathe at times, and she will likely need a risky lung transplant in the future.

She delayed speaking out about the nature of her relationship with Epstein because of these reasons, she said.

“She doesn’t concretely answer some of the most difficult questions, the heart of the questions,” Harald Stanghelle, a royal commentator for the Aftenposten newspaper of record, told NRK, arguing that questions still remained about the result of her Google searches in 2011.

In remarks sent to AFP, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store expressed satisfaction that the princess “took responsibility for not having checked Epstein’s background more thoroughly”.

Asked about her future, Mette-Marit replied that she had faith in the monarchy’s role and in her husband Haakon, and wanted to “stand by his side”.

“If my health permits,” she quickly added.

“Mette is caring, wise and really strong,” the crown prince said. “That’s why I would always want her by my side if something difficult were ever to happen.”