this post was submitted on 01 Feb 2026
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Norway’s crown princess has become embroiled in another scandal after newly unsealed files appeared to show her years of extensive contact with the late child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The latest tranche of Epstein files, released on Friday by the US justice department, appear to include nearly 1,000 mentions of the crown princess, Mette-Marit.

The files include scores of emails traded between the two, suggesting they were in contact from 2011 to 2014, the Norwegian daily VG reported. Mette-Marit married the future king of Norway in 2001.

The revelations come at a sensitive time for the royal family. The trial of Mette-Marit’s son, Marius Borg Høiby for rape is due to begin on Tuesday. He was born from a relationship before she married Crown Prince Haakon

Høiby is facing 38 charges, including the alleged rape of four women as well as alleged assault and drug offences. If convicted he could face up to 16 years in prison. Høiby has denied the most serious charges, including those of sexual abuse.

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[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 91 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I was told that royal families are all ceremonial and that they don't have any real power, but we keep finding them embroiled with people who have real power.

Really makes you think.

[–] Anarki_@lemmy.blahaj.zone 43 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Money==power. Monarchs roll in money.

[–] motogo@feddit.dk 1 points 20 hours ago

No times 2. Monarchs don't really roll in money, and to elaborate let's dive into your first statement, and why it's off. Money is only really power if you have the freedom to buy with it as you want. Monarchs have very little freedom of any in that regard. Often you'll find that the vast majority of the so-called appanage comes with a note of exactly what they should pay for. Like, paying for renovations of buildings you don't appreciate living in and stills being told to live in it. Agreed, they do live a rather decent lifestyle, and there's no reason to feel sorry for monarchs' financial setup, but it comes at a hefty price of a lifetime commitment to no freedom in some regards. Personally I really appreciate the royal family in Denmark. The Danish king is a wise, highly trained military man, who also is a father driving his kids to school in a flatbed bicycle. It's just good PR for a country to have a king (and queen) like that.

[–] cuboc@lemmy.world 32 points 1 day ago

In theory, yes. In our country, our royal family has an undisclosed amount of money, get an undisclosed amount of money from the taxpayer and has a number of other sources of income as well. One of the nephews of the king has a huge real estate business built upon his family money.

Fucking parasites.

[–] drmoose@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Any social influencers of this level obviously have indirect power and anyone who claims otherwise is delusional.

That being said, I do think it's possible that ceremonial representation can be beneficial. I'd love states start electing purely ceremonial roles more as it's a really powerful social tool for uniting people and can be done right.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 points 22 hours ago

Honestly the idea of just using a mascot that you just hire someone to play isn't the worst idea. Just like, someone playing Marianne or whatever that lady that represents France in political cartoons is named.