The recently published files on the abuse scandal surrounding the disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein have cast a negative light on Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit.

According to media reports, the 52-year-old is mentioned several hundred times in the documents published by the US Department of Justice last Friday.

Particular attention was drawn to email correspondence about a visit to Epstein’s estate in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2013.

The palace confirmed to broadcaster NRK that Mette-Marit had borrowed Epstein’s house through a mutual friend. She stayed there for four days with a friend, according to Guri Varpe, spokeswoman for the Norwegian royal family.

She also met Epstein during this visit, Varpe said.

However, Mette-Marit never stayed on the multimillionaire’s private island, Little Saint James.

Epstein operated an abuse ring for years, with dozens of young women and minors falling victim. He died in a prison cell in 2019.

At the weekend, Mette-Marit issued a statement apologising for her relationship with Epstein.

She had “not checked Epstein’s background more thoroughly”, she said in the statement released to Norwegian media outlets. She had shown “poor judgment” and regretted “having had any contact with Epstein at all”.

“It’s just embarrassing,” she said.

She expressed her “deep sympathy” and solidarity with the victims of the sex offender.

According to the Norwegian newspaper Dagens Næringsliv, Mette-Marit met Epstein several times in the US and in Oslo in 2011 and 2013.

The then Mette-Marit Tjessem Høiby met Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon through mutual friends in 1999. Their engagement was announced in December 2000.

The royal couple have two children – Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 22, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 20. Mette-Marit also has a 29-year-old son named Marius Borg Høiby from a previous relationship.

The publication of the explosive emails comes as he is due to stand trial for rape and abuse this week. Høiby is charged with 38 counts, including rape, abuse in close relationships, bodily harm, damage to property and violations of restraining orders.

He is expected to respond to the allegations on the second day of the trial.

Politician with pants down

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has called for the former ambassador to the US, Peter Mandelson, to be removed from parliament’s upper chamber after new reports emerged of his ties with Epstein.

The Epstein files included a picture of Mandelson in his underwear in a room with an unknown woman wearing a robe.

Mandelson, a prominent figure in Starmer’s Labour Party for decades, was fired from his envoy role last year after previous revelations about his connections to Epstein.

Late on ⁠Sunday (UK time) the former minister under Labour’s 1997-2007 prime minister Tony Blair quit the party as well after more documents were released, saying he did not wish to cause “further embarrassment”.

The Financial Times said the files also showed that accounts connected to Mandelson had received $US75,000 ($108,000) from Epstein, prompting opposition politicians to call for a full investigation.

Mandelson said in a letter to ‌the Labour Party that ​he was sorry to be linked once again to the “understandable furore surrounding Jeffrey Epstein”. But he said he believed that allegations about Epstein’s payments to ‍him were false and he would investigate.

Starmer’s spokesperson said Mandelson should not be a member of the House of Lords, parliament’s upper chamber that revises legislation, but added that Starmer had no power to remove him.

“He (Starmer) is calling on those in the Lords to work with the government to modernise disciplinary procedures in the House to allow for the easier removal of Lords who have brought the House into disrepute,” the spokesperson said, adding Starmer had instructed the cabinet secretary to ​review all available information regarding Mandelson’s contacts with Epstein.

Many MPs said Starmer should go further ‌and launch an official inquiry into allegations over financial payments.

“We need a full cabinet office investigation into how Mandelson and his husband took money from the paedophile Jeffrey Epstein while he was a Labour minister, ​and why Mandelson was appointed ambassador in the first place,” Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party, said on X.

Mandelson could ‍choose to retire from the House of Lords but ousting him would require the government to propose and pass a piece of legislation.

He is currently on a leave of absence.

A Labour spokesperson said on Monday it was right that Mandelson had quit the party and added ​that ​disciplinary action had already started before that.

In the late ​1990s, Mandelson played a central role in Labour’s electoral success as Blair became PM.

Also a former European Union trade commissioner, he came under scrutiny last year when US lawmakers released documents including a letter in which he called Epstein “my best pal”, leading to his dismissal as the UK ambassador.

Mandelson also had a turbulent earlier career in domestic politics.

In 1998, he quit as trade minister over a loan from a fellow minister to buy a house, following questions over conflict of interest.

A second stint in the cabinet also ended in a resignation in 2001 when he was forced out over his alleged involvement in a passport scandal involving an Indian billionaire.

Mandelson was later cleared of acting improperly.

Separately, Starmer said on Saturday that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, should testify before a US ‍congressional committee following the latest revelations about his links to Epstein.