Princess Sofia of Sweden’s links to Jeffrey Epstein have led to a rare statement from the royal court in Stockholm
Reports surfaced earlier this week that the princess, 41, had met Jeffrey Epstein in the early years of her career as a glamour model and actress.
Emails showed that a friend of Sofia’s, Barbro Ehnbom, had contacted Epstein in 2005 to set up an introduction between him and Sofia who had just arrived in New York.
Ehnbom, who attended Sofia’s 2015 wedding to Prince Carl Philip, described the now princess as ”an aspiring actress who just arrived in New York. She’s the girl I told you about before I left, who I thought you might like to meet….’
In response to Dagens Nyheter, the Swedish royals said that Sofia had ”been introduced to the person in question on a few occasions around 2005….the princess has not had any contact with the person in question for 20 years”.
Jeffrey Epstein was first convicted of sex offences in 2008, three years after meeting Sofia. He was later arrested again and was found dead in his prison cell in 2019.
It was also reported that Epstein had offered to send Sofia a ticket to his private island which later became notorious after numerous allegations from women that they had been trafficked there. The Swedish royal court confirmed that the princess had refused the offer to go to Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands.
Just days before the revelation, Sweden’s royals had caused surprise when it was revealed that Sofia wouldn’t be attending the Nobel Prize ceremony this year. She has been a regular at the event since her engagement to Prince Carl Philip in 2014. The court said she had decided, instead, to stay at home to look after her fourth child, Princess Ines, who is now 10 months old.
King Carl Gustaf and Queen Silvia led the royals at the prize ceremony and at the banquet that followed. Crown Princess Victoria and her husband, Prince Daniel, were in attendance. Prince Carl Philip walked in with his younger sister, Princess Madeleine, and her husband, Christopher O’Neill.
The news comes just weeks after King Charles stripped his younger brother, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, of his titles. The former prince had a long standing association with Jeffrey Epstein. He was also accused by Virginia Giuffre of having sex with her when she was just 17 – an allegation he denies.
King Charles removed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s HRH and Prince and asked for his titles of Duke of York, Earl of Inverness and Baron Killyleagh to be struck from the Roll of Peerage.
