Lthe last queen of Europe, Margaret II of Denmark, he abdicated in surprise. On January 14, he will leave the throne to Crown Prince Frederik after 52 years of reign. She announced it during the traditional end-of-year speech that the 83-year-old sovereign gave to the nation live on television. The new queen, Princess Mary, is of Australian origin. She met her future husband in a pub in Sydney.
The new king is Frederick X
Queen she would have remained on the throne until her death like Elizabeth II if health problems had not forced her to stop. Her abdication was completely unexpected.
Crown Prince Frederik will take the name King Frederick X. He is 55 years old.
The love story with his wife is worthy of a truly dreamlike fairy tale.
Who is Mary of Denmark, Australia’s first future queen
Who knows if the romantic comedy A prince all to myself by Martha Coolidge (2004) was inspired at the time by the love story between the Australian Mary Donaldson and Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Because the romantic plot is very similar to the fairy tale that concerns them. A prince goes on holiday abroad and by chance meets a bourgeois girl who is unaware of his rank and with whom he falls in love.
With a scripted climax: obstacles, impediments, training at court, love that conquers all and then the happy ending.
Frederik, eldest son of Queen Margaret II of Denmark and Prince Consort Henrik, decided to go to Sydney for the Olympics in September 2000 as a supporter of the national sailing team.
Unlike the English royals, Frederik, who was 32 years old at the time, could afford to be an accidental tourist by wandering around the city undisturbed without being recognized.
So on the evening of September 14, 2000 he left the hotel with a group of friends, Bruno Gómez Acebo, nephew of the King of Spain, his brother Joachim, Martha Louise of Norway and Nicolas of Greece.
Destination, the Slip Hinn, a cool pub in the city on Darling Harbour.
The meeting between Prince Frederik and Mary of Denmark in a pub
That evening, fate also brought to the same pub the bourgeois Mary Donaldson, a 29-year-old originally from Tasmania, a real estate agent and financial advisor by profession, and Andrew Miles, a friend with whom she shared the apartment.
They have to meet up with a group of friends who have arrived at Sydney for the Olympics. In those days, a million tourists arrive in Australia.
It is certainly a magical night, full of excitement: the inauguration is scheduled for the next day. The place is full of people and the two get to know each other between beers like many other people.
Frederik tells little about himself, telling her that he collects speeding tickets and loves to get tattoos. She immediately feels attracted to this European who speaks perfect English.
Result: they hang out for the duration of the games, exchange phone numbers and promise to see each other again. And it will really be like this.
They begin a long-distance relationship: Frederik returns to Australia where he can feel freer.
They also send gifts by post: she sends him a CD of the Australian band Powderfinger, he reciprocates with the Danish group Sort Sol.
They have fun, they get along well, but every time he returns to Denmark they feel an undeniable feeling of emptiness, as they will tell years later in an interview.
She is the daughter of a mathematician, John Dalgliesh Donaldson and Henrietta Clark Home, assistant to the vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania. The youngest of four children, Mary has a law degree and collaborates with various advertising companies.
The commoner and the prince
Margrethe II of Denmark
The “clandestine” did not last long: in 2001, the story ended up in the newspapers “The commoner and the prince”.
The Danish tabloid Billed Bladet reports the news. Meanwhile, Mary decides to move to Europe.
He goes to live in Paris, where he teaches English, and finally to Copenhagen where the press often “pins” the couple together.
The marriage proposal came in 2003, during a holiday in Rome. “You can’t say no, you don’t have to say no, you have to say yes,” Prince Frederik tells her on his knees, placing an emerald-cut diamond and two baguette rubies on her finger, the same colors as the Danish flag.
The engagement announcement follows on the following October 8th. Years later Frederik states in an interview with The Sydney Morning Herald that theirs had been love at first sight: «Almost destiny, as if it had already been written».
“If my son is in love with you it means that you are a smart girl”, Queen Margherita apparently tells her at the first meeting.
The future princess immediately learns the language, signs a prenuptial contract which ensures custody of her children in the event of separation and studies like a queen: in 2019 her mother-in-law will reward her by naming her princess regent, which means she can take her place.
Learn court etiquette, public speaking, holding the camera’s eye and giving interviews. In a few weeks a survey revealed that nine out of ten Danes love it.
The fairytale wedding
The princes in the last New Year’s Eve gala (IPA)
The wedding took place on May 14, 2004 at Fredensborg Palace in Copenhagen.
Mary wears a dress by the Danish designer Uffe Frank and as witnesses she chooses her two sisters and her best friend and radio announcer Amber Petty.
Twenty-four meters of duchess silk and organza are used for the dress, two meters of lace for the decorations, the train is exaggerated: it is eight meters long.
The veil belongs to Queen Margaret. The bouquet is composed of white roses and Australian eucalyptus and a red rose in honor of his mother Henriette, who passed away in the meantime.
He is moved to tears on worldwide viewing.
Two hearts, one palace.
Four children are born, Cristiano (in 2005), Isabella (2007), and the twins Vincent and Josephine (2011).
For her style Mary is compared to Lady Diana, Jacqueline Kennedy and Kate Middleton. She has posed for Vogue and Australian Women’s Weekly.
She is the godmother of Estella, the daughter of Victoria of Sweden. In May 2012 she created The Mary Foundation. When she ascends the throne, Mary Donaldson will become the first Australian queen in Danish history.
Was there a betrayal behind the abdication?
«I decided that now is the right time. On January 14, 2024, 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father, I will relinquish my role as Queen of Denmark. I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik” announced the queen in her New Year’s speech.
“The surgery made me think about the future, and the fact that the time had come to leave responsibility to the next generation,” she said, adding: “Time is running out and the ailments are increasing. I can no longer face the same things I once faced.”
It seems that behind the acceleration of the passage there is a scandal involving Prince Frederik himself.
He was portrayed in the company of a Mexican socialite in Madrid, fueling doubts that the relationship with Mary is just a cosmetic union.
Margaret II ascended the throne in 1972 after the death of her father, King Frederik IX: she is queen of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. She is the last remaining ruler. The others are all queen consorts.
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