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Belgium’s Prince Laurent has revealed that he had two ‘one-on-one’ meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, after his name appeared in files related to the investigation into the late convicted sex offender.
Laurent, King Philippe’s younger brother, said that the encounters, which happened at Epstein’s request, date back to the early 1990s and the early 2000s.
The prince, 62, denied ever meeting the disgraced financier at ‘public or group events’.
The clarification came after an earlier statement said Laurent had ‘never, directly or indirectly, attended an event’ with Epstein and his entourage.
Laurent, who is not accused of wrongdoing, is among numerous high-profile figures referenced in the latest cache of Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice.
Earlier on Monday, the prince said Epstein reached out to him while he was working as an intern at the United Nations and later at a New York bank, seeking an introduction to his royal parents.
Laurent said he refused that and other overtures before being contacted again about a decade later, when the financier invited him to a Paris dinner with ‘a head of state and wealthy and influential men’.
The prince said he declined the offer.
Belgium’s Prince Laurent (pictured) has revealed that he had two ‘one-on-one’ meetings with Jeffrey Epstein, after his name appeared in the Epstein files
The prince has denied ever meeting the disgraced financier at ‘public or group events’
Pictured: Jeffrey Epstein and his then partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking
Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution, died in 2019 by suicide while in jail awaiting trial for sex crimes against minors.
Prince Laurent’s disclosure comes after Norway’s Crown Princess was forced to apologise after newly unsealed files revealed her unexpected friendship with Epstein.
Mette-Marit, 52, who married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001, exchanged dozens of emails with Epstein despite knowing he had been jailed for procuring an underage girl for prostitution.
Her name appeared at least 1,000 times in the millions of new Epstein documents released by the US Department of Justice on Friday, local media reported.
The disclosures come at an acutely uncomfortable time for the Norwegian monarchy, with Mette Marit’s son, Marius Borg Hoiby, due to appear in court on Tuesday,y charged with raping four women and 34 other offences.
Documents show the Crown Princess’s effusive email exchanges with Epstein date from between 2011 and 2014.
She was also previously known to have met the paedophile on at least three occasions in Oslo, New York and the Caribbean between 2011 and 2013.
Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit (pictured in 2024) was forced to apologise after newly unsealed files revealed her unexpected friendship with Epstein
The disclosures come at an uncomfortable time for the Norwegian monarchy, with Mette Marit’s son, Marius Borg Hoiby (pictured), due to appear in court on Tuesday charged with raping four women and 34 other offences
In one email, Mette-Marit asked Epstein if it was ‘inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15-year-old son’s wallpaper’.
In another, she told him he was ‘very charming’.
When Epstein told her he was in Paris ‘on (a) wife hunt’ in 2012, she replied saying the French capital is ‘good for adultery’ and ‘Scandis (are) better wife material’.
Epstein had at that point already pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for prostitution.
The files also show she stayed at his house in Florida for four days in 2013.
On Saturday, Mette-Marit addressed her ’embarrassing’ friendship with the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 as he awaited trial for sex crimes against minors.
‘I showed poor 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.
The 52-year-old said she was responsible ‘for not having checked Epstein’s background more closely and not understanding quickly enough what kind of person he was’.
Sarah Feerguson is said to have visited Epstein with her two young daughters just five days after he was released from prison for child sex crimes
Yet in 2011, Mette-Marit wrote to Epstein that she had ‘googled’ him, adding ‘it didn’t look too good’ and ending the sentence with a smiling emoji.
She did not specify exactly what she was referring to.
According to the palace, Mette-Marit had ceased contact with Epstein in 2014 because she felt he was ‘trying to use his relationship with the crown princess as leverage with other people’.
Mette-Marit and Laurent are not the only royals mentioned in the latest release of the Epstein files.
It emerged on Monday that Sarah Ferguson visited Epstein with her two young daughters just five days after he was released from prison for child sex crimes, according to newly released emails.
The former Duchess of York is said to have taken Princess Beatrice and Eugenie to see the paedophile in July 2009, less than a week after he was freed from a Florida jail, where he had served 12 months for soliciting a child for prostitution and was placed under house arrest.
At the time of the visit, Beatrice and Eugenie would have been aged 20 and 19, respectively.
Epstein confirmed the meeting in an email sent to his then partner Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking, on July 29 2009.
He wrote: ‘ferg and the two girls come [sic] yesterday’.
A mughsot showing disgraced financier Epstein in 2019
Ferguson and her former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, were friends with Epstein for more than a decade
The day before, Ms Ferguson herself emailed Epstein to arrange the visit, writing: ‘What address shall we come to. It will be myself, Beatrice and Eugenie. Are we having lunch?’
Emails seen by the Telegraph show the group met at Epstein’s Palm Beach mansion, where the paedophile served vegetable lasagne prepared by a Parisian chef.
Epstein later referred to the visit in correspondence released in October. Writing to British lawyer Paul Tweed on April 7, 2011, he complained about Ms Ferguson’s failure to defend him publicly following his conviction.
He said: ‘She was the first to celebrate my release with her two daughters in tow. She visited me with [a] policeman sitting at my front desk. She has asked for help with her charities,’ according to the Mail on Sunday.
The emails are among more than three million documents released by the US Justice Department on Friday.
Other messages appear to show Epstein attempting to arrange meetings between Beatrice and Eugenie and his goddaughter, Celina Dubin, daughter of billionaire hedge fund manager Glenn Dubin and his wife Eva.
On June 22 2009, while Epstein was still in prison but allowed out during the day to work, he emailed Ms Ferguson and Mrs Dubin, writing: ‘My goddaughter will be in London from July 8-9, eva will be with her….lets [sic] come up with a fun idea’.
Ms Ferguson and her former husband, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, were friends with Epstein for more than a decade.
In a separate email sent in 2010, Ms Ferguson told the late financier: ‘Just marry me’. She also described him as a ‘legend’ and said he was the ‘brother I have always wished for’.
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