The Crown Princess is seriously ill, and I think she has deteriorated a lot lately, so I am worried about her health. She uses oxygen in her daily life, which helps somewhat, said the Norwegian Crown Prince when he met the press after the Abel Prize ceremony in Oslo on Tuesday.
Queen Sonja is also currently on sick leave for atrial fibrillation and heart failure and had to cancel her participation in the county trip to Vestlandet where King Harald, 89, is now.
"I think it's impressive how both the King and Queen continue to carry out their official duties. And I think they do much more than you would expect, so I'm very impressed by that," said Crown Prince Haakon.
He also commented on the ongoing Epstein affair, saying that he first learned of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes at the same time as most others in 2018 or 2019, but that he did not conduct any of his own investigations into the financier.
"I did not conduct any special investigations myself, no. And I could have done so," the Crown Prince said during the impromptu press conference.
Regarding the situation with Epstein, which Mette-Marit described in an interview with NRK as "uncomfortable," Haakon said that he spoke to his wife about this, but denied it was a situation that warranted calling the police.
According to Dagbladet, the Crown Prince cited as an example that Epstein used her name in contexts she did not like, and that the overall impression of these experiences led Mette-Marit to break contact with him.
