‘Beer and pizza’: The Sydney night Queen Mary and King Frederik fell in love

Newly crowned King Frederik X was at a Sydney pub when he started chatting with an Aussie girl working in real estate. Moments later, he says, their “fates were sealed”.

It was the unlikeliest of romances, a globetrotting playboy prince and a girl from Tasmania working in the back office of a Sydney real estate agency.

But from a chance meeting in a crowded Sydney harbourside pub in 2000 to today, the fairytale love story of now Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess, who will be crowned in the early hours of Monday, has played out for all the world to see.

Prince Frederik of Denmark and Mary Donaldson, met in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics. Source: Pinterest

“I found myself in an unknown country among happy, festive foreigners,” Frederik would later recount to the royal court of that chance meeting at the Slip Inn during the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

He never told her he was the heir to the throne of Denmark as he introduced himself to her simply as Fred as he stood there drinking merrily with others including his brother Prince Joachim and cousin Prince Nikolaos of Greece.

Mary in 2001 when she lived in Bondi Junction. Picture: Steve Morenos

The princess-in-waiting was living with a friend during her relationship with the Crown Prince. Picture: Scott Hornby.

“My only luggage at that time was my high expectations of my visit and a certain degree of confidence,” the then Crown Prince Frederick would reveal during toasts after their wedding in May 2004.

“I had only been in Australia two days before our fates were sealed, even though neither of us was aware of it. But your radiance shone clearly for me from our very first meeting.”

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark kisses her husband Danish Crown Prince Frederik on the balcony at Amalienborg Castle in Copenhagen following their wedding ceremony in 2004.

The vivacious Mary Donaldson had only been invited to the pub by her then Bondi Junction terrace housemate who told her to come for beer and pizza with friends at a city pub.

By all reports Mary and her Aussie gal pals began debating the sexiness of chest hair on men as they turned to the table of princes and their open shirts to pose the question and sample a chest rub.

The Slip Inn bar in Sydney where the couple met. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

The Slip Inn bar before the couple’s wedding in 2004. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

The hairless Frederik caught her eye and they soon bonded over more in-depth discussion of horses and sport before the high spirited group drank on into the night at other city bars. For ‘Fred’ and Mary, their fates were sealed, their love story begun.

Hobart-born Mary had graduated from the University of Tasmania with degrees in commerce and law but worked in various jobs including as an account manager for an advertising agency, even appearing in a TV commercial in 1998 for Victoria’s regional train travel (which since last weekend has resurfaced to trend on social media).

Crown Prince Frederik and Tasmanian-born Mary arrive for her sister Patricia’s wedding in 2004 in Hobart. Photo: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images

The couple in Denmark in 2002.

But after the Slip Inn romance she soon quit Sydney and moved to Copenhagen for intense lessons in the Danish language, diplomacy and royal decorum.

The couple maintained a long distance relationship for a year, with the then 32-year-old Frederik making secret trips to Australia to visit his 28-year-old love, but by 2001 it was decided her journey into the royal family should begin.

The couple at a press conference for the official announcement of their engagement in 2003.

By 2003 Queen Margrethe formally acknowledged the relationship and an engagement was announced later that year.

Their love would make four beautiful children with the eldest now 18-year-old Christian elevated to Crown Prince and heir to the throne after the ascension of his parents.

Frederik might soon be king but from the beginning he has credited his queen with being his guiding force.

“The joy and the strength you give me is like the sun in the daytime which, with its radiance, melts all doubts and darkness on earth,” he said during their wedding vows.

“And like the moon at night, you shine with a watchful and delicate beam of gentleness, which extinguishes the mischief and deceit used by the symbols of darkness.”

– additional reporting by Danielle Gusmaroli

Originally published as ‘Beer and pizza’: The Sydney night Queen Mary and King Frederik fell in love