The newly released files suggest that Jeffrey Epstein and Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway were closer than previously reported.PHOTO: AFP

‘My crazy friend’: The royals who stayed close to Epstein

· The Straits Times

LONDON – A British ex-duchess called Jeffrey Epstein the “brother I always wished for”. Norway’s future queen wrote “I miss my crazy friend” after his trafficking crimes were well known. A Saudi royal court adviser exchanged crude and knowing messages with Epstein.

“I am sure you are opening so many legs there,” Mr Raafat Al-Sabbagh, the adviser to Saudi Arabia’s royal court, and a close associate of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, wrote to Epstein, who was at his home in Florida.