The Peace Twins

Edward and Emma Juul Rød-Larsen were born in Oslo on August 7, 2000. The Norwegian press called them the Peace Twins. Their mother, Mona Juul, served as state secretary in the Norwegian Foreign Ministry. Their father, Terje Rød-Larsen, helped broker the 1993 Oslo Accords. The family followed the mother's postings: Tel Aviv during her years as ambassador to Israel, New York when she took a UN job, Oslo, and London after Norway named her ambassador to the UK in 2014. Edward attended the Browning School in Manhattan, then Majorstuen in Oslo, and boarded at Stowe in Buckinghamshire from the age of fourteen.

Half a mile from the family's New York apartment, at 9 East 71st Street, lived Jeffrey Epstein. In 2008 he pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting prostitution and to procuring a person under eighteen. Epstein's foundation was a donor to Terje's International Peace Institute from at least 2007 (EFTA02006494). On May 4, 2010, Epstein told staff to call "that guy from the un" to set up a meeting at the Manhattan house "remind him ehud barak" — he didn't yet know Terje's full name (EFTA01811962). Within months Terje was scouting Italian castles, Spanish hotels, and Vienna villas for him (EFTA02419319, EFTA01156280). In November he declined an evening visit to Epstein's house by text: "am at soccer with my son" (EFTA00559721). Four months later the family flew down to Epstein's private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The twins' father wrote afterward that the children were "ecstatic" — "think the four wheel drives made the strongest impression!" (EFTA01870016).

The next year Epstein sent Edward and his father custom Stubbs & Wootton shoes with their initials stitched on. His assistant emailed for sizes and had them within a week. Five weeks later she emailed again to ask for Emma's (EFTA02316736). On February 18, 2013, the family flew to New York for a private dinner at Epstein's mansion (EFTA01761422). Emma, twelve, brought a friend. That December Epstein sent the twins Apple computers, AppleCare registered to each device (EFTA00377743).

In October 2014, with Edward newly boarding at Stowe, Mona Juul and Terje hosted a dinner at the International Peace Institute in honor of the school's headmaster, Anthony Wallersteiner, on his visit to New York. They invited Epstein (EFTA02592104). They also invited Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn, with their two adopted daughters, then around fourteen and fifteen (EFTA02386639).

In late 2015 Epstein iMessaged Terje "No 100k?"; the money came through, and on New Year's Day Terje wrote back: "Dear Jeff, this to thank you for the best and the most generous friendship in the year that passed" (EFTA01614259).

In September 2016, when Edward was sixteen, Epstein sent a gift to him at Stowe. Epstein's staff thought it too expensive — "seems like an exhorbetant amount of money" (EFTA02041569). Asked the value to declare on the customs form, Epstein answered: "50 dollars" (EFTA02329679).

The next summer Edward turned seventeen and Stowe required him to do a week of work experience. Epstein arranged it. Standard Chartered declined (EFTA01039905); Bank of China in London took him (EFTA02639578). Edward wrote to him: "Dear Jeff, Dad told me about the Bank having decided to take me for work experience, and I am so happy about it! … Thank you, Jeff!!" (EFTA02398233). That week Edward's father texted Epstein in Norwegian: "Takk for alt du gjør! Jeg holder tett!" — Thanks for everything you do. I'm keeping quiet (Aftenposten). Edward missed days at the bank, and on September 13 he wrote an apology to the bank's vice president of resourcing, blind-copying Epstein (EFTA01020790):

A dire family circumstance arose…

I have brought shame on my family.

Six months earlier, Mona Juul brought Emma to the New York opening of Oslo — the play about Edward and Emma's parents — at Lincoln Center (Getty Images, Walter McBride); the year before, Terje's office supplied Epstein three tickets to the play's off-Broadway run (EFTA00322575). Three weeks after the apology letter, the family attended its West End premiere at the Harold Pinter Theatre (Shutterstock).

The following year Epstein arranged a placement for Edward at Christie's in London. "Thanks so much for the opportunity to do work at Christies," Edward wrote him on March 14, 2018. "I won't mess up this time!" (EFTA02506518). A month later Epstein wrote back about how the boy should present himself for the placement: "by july you need to look like a preppy school boy" (EFTA02465660). His parents moved to New York that fall.

In October Edward applied early decision to NYU. The day before the application went in, Terje asked Epstein to Skype with the boy at 4 p.m. London time for "a pep talk, which you are so good at" (EFTA01614476). The next day Edward forwarded his application essays: "Hi Jeff, Here is the separate essay to the one we talked about yesterday" (EFTA01019695).

In December, Epstein's office ordered Christmas Apple Watches for both twins. Edward's shipped to 10 Palace Green in Kensington, where he was living (EFTA00487085). For Emma's, Terje asked Epstein to give it to his eldest daughter Hilde in Oslo instead (EFTA02263273). Epstein bought one for Emma anyway and, with no address for her, shipped it to his own house on East 71st. Weeks later Terje relented but had it sent to Edward's flat (EFTA02269093). The watch at Epstein's address went back (EFTA02269631).

On January 14, 2019, the mother presented her credentials as Norway's ambassador to the UN (UN). Days later, NYU put Edward on the early-decision waitlist (EFTA02626583). Epstein marshaled his network — Rita Hauser, who chaired the IPI board his foundation funded (EFTA02606223); the UAE ambassador to the UN, who wrote NYU's president directly (EFTA01614516). On May 22, Terje texted Epstein that NYU had cleared 350 from the waitlist: "Ed is not amongst them. … He is a bit depressed." Epstein answered: "ok , now its ok to try pressure." Two days later, after Terje reported the boy had "regained his confidence and composure" and was doing four hours of tutoring after school, Epstein wrote back: "great on all fronts. eddy concerns me." The next day: "is it possible that eddy has a file that mentions discipline issues? the director of the school should call the director of admisiions" (EFTA01614552). He never enrolled.

On August 8, 2019, Epstein signed a new will (EFTA01266204): $5 million each to Edward and Emma, $10 million to Ghislaine Maxwell. The estate remains in administration; it has paid no bequest.

Two days later he was dead in his cell. Edward was nineteen.

Edward took A-levels at Collingham College in Kensington, spent a gap year on the John Hall art-history course in Venice (John Hall Venice), finished a BA at Parsons in 2022, and joined Palo Gallery in NoHo. By 2023 he was sales director (BFA). His father by then lived at The Abu Dhabi Edition.

The family's Oslo home — a 3,600-square-foot apartment at Drammensveien 42 in Frogner — was financed by Epstein and bought in 2018 from the shipping magnate Morits Skaugen for about $1.3 million. Skaugen valued it at $2.4 million; the sale, he later told NRK, was not voluntary (NRK). On February 9, 2026, Økokrim searched the apartment and seized Oslo Accords papers from a basement storage room, some stamped strictly confidential (Dagbladet). The apartment remains in the family's name.

In summers the family stayed at Villa Pax, built from 2015 to 2019 on the Greek island of Paxos — described in Dagens Næringsliv as an "architectural masterpiece." Years earlier Epstein scouted private islands off Paxos's southern tip, with one of the listings in his own files (EFTA01189051). Norwegian tax filings show roughly $7 million in income from 2011 to 2024, against $220,000 paid in tax (Nettavisen).

In December 2024 their mother became Norway's ambassador to Jordan, and from October 2025 also to Iraq.

On January 30, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice released millions of pages of newly disclosed Epstein files. The family's name appeared in more than three thousand of them (France 24). On February 8 Mona Juul resigned. The next day Norway's economic-crime authority charged her with aggravated corruption and her husband with complicity (PBS); the charges named Epstein's role in arranging the children's internships, a below-market Oslo apartment, the island trip, and gifts to the children. A Dagbladet reporter found the father in Abu Dhabi on February 12. He said only, "I cannot speak. I am sick." (Dagbladet). His lawyer said he had suffered two strokes (Dagbladet).

Edward died on April 29 in Oslo. Norwegian police ruled it a suicide (NRK). He was last working at Palo Gallery in New York. He had recently re-registered from a UAE address to Oslo, where he died at his own apartment (Dagbladet).

Emma is twenty-five.