Princess Mary’s bridesmaid Amber Petty says she doesn’t want pity

Princess Mary’s bridesmaid Amber Petty reveals the Danish public’s “confronting” response after she was thrust into the spotlight.

It’s been over a month since Amber Petty shared intimate, and at times harrowing, details of her life and loves in her self-published memoir, This Is Not A Love Song.

And while she became nationally recognised after serving as a royal bridesmaid during the 2004 wedding of the erstwhile Mary Donaldson to Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, Petty tells Stellar On Friday that she never completely visualised what kind of reaction the public would have to her book – and it was confronting initially.

“I’ve been pleasantly surprised the Danish media has been so nice to me.” (Picture: Cameron Grayson)

“The feedback I was getting was that my life had been a bit sad, which actually felt quite confronting. I didn’t like the feeling that people were pitying me,” she says.

“Part of me wanted to throw out a quick press release to say, ‘Hey, it’s OK. Don’t forget that while a whole lot of sh*t was going down, there was also lots of love from my family and friends, and an enormous amount of privilege in the experiences that have unfolded in my life. And the real point is, I took back control of my life, and you can too.’”

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Ultimately, she says, the overall feedback has been more positive than she anticipated. And while Petty’s life has also been fodder for the Danish tabloids over the intervening decades thanks to her friendship with Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, she says she’s been pleasantly surprised by the country’s response to her memoir.

“What I know from my Danish friends is the feedback over there has been really warm and supportive, which has been beautiful,” she says.

“At the end of the day, there’s only one person there I truly care things are right for. And I know they are.”