Denmark’s Queen Margrethe made the shock announcement she will step down from the throne after 52 years sparking rumours the move may have been to protect her daughter-in-law as “affair” rumours swirled around her son.
Speaking on Sunday the much-loved Danish monarch, 83, renowned for her sense of humour and chain-smoking, told her nation she would be handing the throne over to Crown Prince Fredrik.
As the 55-year-old becomes king it will mark a remarkable story for his wife Crown Princess Mary, 51, who is Australian-born and not of royal descent.
Crown Princess Mary’s Cinderella story has captured the hearts of people in both countries and around the world, but recent headlines have been about her husband.
He was pictured on a night out and walking in Madrid with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova sparking rumours of an “affair”. There has been no official statement from the Danish royal family on the allegations and Ms Casanova branded the rumours “malicious”.
Crown Princess Mary, then Mary Donaldson, met Fredrik at the Slip Inn in Sydney 23 years ago when she was 28 years old. After the chance encounter the pair exchanged numbers and have since married and had four children together.
She has since developed a strong bond with her mother-in-law Queen Margrethe and a recent opinion poll 85 percent of Danes have a positive opinion of their Antipodean royal.
In her abdication statement Queen Margrethe said back surgery she underwent in early 2023 led to “thoughts about the future” and when to pass on the responsibilities of the crown to her son, adding: “I have decided that now is the right time.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederikse said Queen Margrethe is the “epitome of Denmark” and “throughout the years has put words and feelings into who we are as a people and as a nation”.
The six-foot-tall chain-smoking Queen has been one of the most popular public figures in Denmark, where the monarch’s role is largely ceremonial. She often walked the streets of Copenhagen virtually unescorted and won the admiration of Danes for her warm manners and for her talents as a linguist and designer.
A keen skier, she was a member of a Danish women’s air force unit as a princess, taking part in judo courses and endurance tests in the snow. Margrethe remained tough even as she grew older. In 2011, at age 70, she visited Danish troops in southern Afghanistan wearing a military jumpsuit.
As monarch, she crisscrossed the country and regularly visited Greenland and the Faeroe Islands, the two semi-independent territories which are part of the Danish Realm, and was met everywhere by cheering crowds.
Denmark has Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy, which traces its line back to the Viking king Gorm the Old, who died in 958. Although Magrethe is head of state, the Danish Constitution strictly ruled out her involvement in party politics.
