Princess Mette-Marit, the future Queen of Norway whose son is about to be tried for rape, is embroiled in another scandal, with documents revealing her close ties to American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, raising questions about her chances of ever ascending the throne.

The name of Mette-Marit, a commoner who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, appears multiple times -- at least 1,000 times, according to the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang (VG) -- in the millions of pages released Friday by the US Department of Justice.

The content and tone of these exchanges between 2011 and 2014, published this weekend in the Norwegian press, attest to an unsuspected complicity between Mette-Marit and Jeffrey Epstein, the American financier who committed suicide in prison in 2019.

In emails, she asks him if it is "inappropriate for a mother to suggest, as a wallpaper for her 15-year-old son, an image of two naked women carrying a surfboard," and she tells him that he is "very charming."

In 2012, when Jeffrey Epstein said he was in Paris "looking for a wife", she replied that the French capital was "good for adultery" but that "Scandinavians (make) better women".

Jeffrey Epstein had already been sentenced in 2008 to just over a year in prison for using underage prostitutes.

In response to these revelations, Mette-Marit stressed that "only Jeffrey Epstein (should) answer for his actions," while expressing her remorse.

"I made an error in judgment and I deeply regret having had any contact with Epstein. It is simply embarrassing," she said in a statement sent by the Royal Palace to AFP.

The 52-year-old princess also admits her responsibility "for not having checked Epstein's background more carefully and for not having understood quickly enough what kind of person he was".

In 2011, however, she wrote to Epstein that she had "googled" him. "Yes, it didn't make a very good impression," she added, punctuating her sentence with a smiley face, without it being clear what she was referring to exactly.

Mette-Marit also stayed with a friend at Epstein's house in Palm Beach, Florida, for four days in January 2013, the Royal Palace also confirmed.

The princess ended these contacts with the businessman because she felt that he was "trying to exploit with other people the links he had had with the Crown Princess," the Palace said.

- Catastrophic timing -

"It almost gives the impression that they were close friends," says historian Ole-Jørgen Schulsrud-Hansen, an expert on Norwegian royalty, while stressing that the context in which these messages were written is not known.

"A crown princess is never a private person," he said. "This certainly shows a lack of judgment and that all the 'safety valves' around her have also failed."

On Sunday, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre "agreed" that Mette-Marit had made an error in judgment.

"Will Mette-Marit be able to be queen after this?" asked Kjetil Alstadheim, political editor of the leading newspaper Aftenposten, in an opinion piece, leaving the question open.

The timing is disastrous for the princess.

The trial of his son Marius Borg Høiby, born from a brief relationship prior to his marriage to Haakon, opens on Tuesday in Oslo.

The 29-year-old faces 38 charges, including four rapes and violence against ex-partners, which could earn him several years in prison if he is found guilty.

The royal couple will not attend the trial, which is expected to last seven weeks. Mette-Marit—torn between her roles as a mother and future queen—will take a private trip during this period, Prince Haakon indicated.

These torments are compounded by the princess's serious health problems; she suffers from a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable lung disease.

In December, the Palace announced that she would likely have to undergo a lung transplant, a perilous operation which experts said is usually a last resort.

"He's someone who has to fight several battles simultaneously," emphasizes Ole-Jørgen Schulsrud-Hansen. "But that shouldn't prevent us from making criticisms if they are factually justified."