Celina Midelfart: Did the well-connected entrepreneur have affairs with Trump and Epstein?Image: IMAGO / NTB
The Epstein scandal also shakes Norway’s elite. An entrepreneur had ties to both Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
March 18, 2026, 8:10 p.mMarch 18, 2026, 8:10 p.m
Anna-Lena Janzen / t-online
The Norwegian royal family is currently under pressure: While Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Mette-Marit have come under criticism because of an ongoing trial against their son Marius, the princess’s previous contacts with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are also raising new questions. In this context, another Norwegian entrepreneur is now coming into focus: Celina Midelfart.
The now 53-year-old, heiress to a cosmetics company, was already part of the international jet set in the 1990s. She is credited with having previous relationships with Crown Prince Haakon and appointments with Donald Trump. The entrepreneur also had contact with Jeffrey Epstein in the 1990s.
Statements and new documents
In the trial of Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in 2021, a former assistant testified under oath in court that Epstein had maintained relationships with several women at the same time in the mid-1990s – including Midelfart. She belonged to a circle of women who met him regularly. He also had flowers sent to her from his office, Cimberly Espinosa, a longtime assistant to Epstein and Maxwell, testified in court.
The Epstein case received additional attention this year with the release of the Epstein files by the US Department of Justice. In an email from Epstein to a journalist, which can be found in the files, the former financier himself claims that he had “passed on” a former girlfriend to Donald. He literally wrote in the email that it was “my girlfriend of 20 years in 1993, who I passed on to Donald after two years.” He also shared a link to a news report about Midelfart. However, there is no independent evidence to support this account of Epstein.
Email correspondence from Jeffrey Epstein in which he talks about having “passed on” one of his former girlfriends to Donald.image: US Department of Justice/jmail.world
Clear rejection
Midelfart clearly denied an alleged affair with Epstein. At the end of December 2021, her lawyer issued an official statement, which Norwegian media quoted. It said: The claim was “not accurate”. She never had a relationship with Epstein and never dated him. He was just part of a loose circle of acquaintances with a short-term business relationship (1996–1997).
Photos from 1997 show Epstein and Midelfart at a reception at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. In one photo, Midelfart, then a student, kisses Epstein on the cheek – evidence of encounters, but not of the alleged relationship.
Espinosa recalls sending flowers, on behalf of Epstein, to Norwegian cosmetics heiress Celina Midelfart, (picture here in the late 90s with Donald Trump) pic.twitter.com/10EMDqri5x
— JOSH RUSSELL (@jruss_jruss) December 16, 2021
Connections in the highest circles
The overlaps go back a long way: Midelfart and Crown Prince Haakon were a couple in the mid-1990s, and she is often described in biographies as his first official girlfriend.
Apparently there was also a relationship with Donald Trump at the end of the 1990s. The media reported on joint appearances, while Midelfart himself later spoke of a close friendship and denied having dated him. One evening during New York Fashion Week 1998 is particularly well known: Trump took Midelfart to the Kit Kat Club, a well-known celebrity disco – there he met Melania Knauss, his current wife, for the first time that same evening.
Melania Trump, then still Knauss (left), and Donald Trump, with Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell. (archive image)Image: Patrick McMullan
Midelfart had apparently previously stayed in New York regularly and rented an apartment in Trump Tower between 1996 and 1998. Both are said to have repeatedly appeared together at social events during this time.
Trump reportedly cut ties with Midelfart after meeting Melania. He spoke to Melania that evening and later received her phone number, the reports said. The US President himself has not confirmed whether the account is really true and whether he was dating Midelfart at the time.
Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote in a column for the British Guardian in October 2025 that Trump asked the Norwegian during NATO talks whether he knew Midelfart. «Yes, I have met her several times. “She is a well-known personality in Norway,” Stoltenberg said he replied. Trump then said: “Nice girl. What did the Norwegian newspapers write about us – was it good or bad?”
As an influential investor, Midelfart is now one of the wealthiest women in Norway, but rarely appears in public. At the age of 22, after the death of her father Finn-Erik Midelfart, she took over the management of the traditional family company Midelfart AS, which had been producing cosmetics and health products since 1923. She later restructured the company and founded her own investment company.
Political consequences in Norway
The Epstein case is now spreading further and further in Norway. Several high-ranking figures from diplomacy and politics are the focus of investigations because of previous contacts with Epstein. Among them: former head of government Thorbjørn Jagland; Diplomat Mona Juul and her husband Terje Rød-Larsen and former Foreign Minister Børge Brende. Some of them are being investigated on suspicion of corruption, the NTB news agency reported.
Contacts with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have already put several Norwegians in distress. (archive image)Image: keystone
The Norwegian Parliament has now unanimously decided to set up a commission of inquiry. This is intended to examine the connections of government agencies to international networks and organizations since the 1990s. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said it was “crucial that the facts come to the table”.
The investigation could not only bring to light new details about Epstein’s international network, but also show how deep his contacts reached into Norway’s political and social elite. The Norwegian Princess Mette-Marit is also said to have maintained a long-standing friendship with Epstein.
Epstein abused numerous minors and young women. In some cases, the well-connected multimillionaire is said to have referred the victims to celebrities. In July 2019, Epstein was arrested again and served a prison sentence. On August 10, 2019, he was found dead in his New York prison cell; according to official information, he took his own life.