extensive contacts with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The princess features hundreds of times between 2011-14 in the latest files released by the US Department of Justice relating to Epstein. This latest embarrassment for the royal family comes on the eve of her son's seven-week trial in Oslo on 38 charges including rape and assault. Princess Mette-Marit married Norway's Crown Prince Haakon as a commoner when her son Marius Borg Høiby was four and is in line to become queen when her husband accedes to the throne.

As the content of her email exchanges began to emerge, the princess released a statement on Saturday saying: "I showed poor judgement and regret having any contact with Epstein at all. It is simply embarrassing." She went on to express her "deep sympathy and solidarity with the victims of the abuses committed by Jeffrey Epstein". Although the prime minister did not go further than agreeing with the princess's admission of poor judgement, his implicit criticism of her is considered unusual. Støre said he also believed that ex-Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland had exercised "poor judgement", after it emerged that he had planned a family holiday on Epstein's private island, though he then cancelled it. Jagland was expected to make a statement on the issue on Monday. The latest cache of Epstein files suggests that the correspondence between Princess Mette-Marit and Epstein began in autumn 2011. (BBC)