She met her future husband at a bar in Australia. Soon she’ll be Denmark’s new queen
- Mary Donaldson will become queen on January 14 when her husband Crown Prince Frederik accedes to the throne after his mother’s abdication
- The Crown Princess said she had to be told that the man she met at Sydney’s Slip Inn bar during the 2000 Olympics was the prince of Denmark
Denmark’s popular Australian-born Crown Princess Mary will become queen on January 14 when her husband Crown Prince Frederik accedes to the throne after his mother’s abdication, capping her real-life fairy tale.
She only discovered later that he was the crown prince of Denmark and his group of friends was made up of other European royals – including his younger brother Prince Joachim and cousin Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark.
I didn’t know he was the prince of Denmark. Half an hour later, someone came up to me and said, ‘Do you know who these people are?’
“The first time we met, we shook hands,” she said in an interview several years ago.
“I didn’t know he was the prince of Denmark. Half an hour later, someone came up to me and said, ‘Do you know who these people are?’”
After a discreet long-distance relationship and numerous under-the-radar visits, the couple became officially engaged in October 2003 and married on May 14, 2004 in Copenhagen Cathedral.
They are now parents to four children: Prince Christian, 18, who will one day become king after his father, Princess Isabella, 16, and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, who turn 13 next week.
