Inside Princess Mary’s Melbourne years
Long before being courted by a dashing Danish prince, Mary Donaldson was just another 20-something uni graduate living in a sharehouse in South Melbourne. Now, she’s set to be crowned Queen of Denmark.
Fiona Byrne
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She hails from Hobart, met her husband in a pub in Sydney and in a matter of days will be crowned Queen of Denmark, but in many ways Princess Mary’s heart belongs to Melbourne.
Long before she was courted by the dashing Danish prince, Frederik, Mary Donaldson was just another 20-something living in a sharehouse in South Melbourne, learning golf at the Albert Park driving range and keeping fit doing laps of Albert Park and The Tan as she embarked on the first steps in her career post uni.
Mary moved to Melbourne after finishing her studies at the University of Tasmania in late 1994/early 1995.
Once in Melbourne she found work at advertising agency DDB Needham and then after 18 months moved to another agency, Mojo Partners.
During that two and a bit year period she lived with various pals in South Melbourne, a short stroll from the South Melbourne market, Elwood and South Yarra and was dating her university sweetheart Brent Annells.
Sometime in 1997, after the passing of her mother, Mary went off to see Europe and America.
On her return to Australia ten months later, and on the urging of her best mate Amber Petty who had relocated to the NSW capital from Melbourne, she moved to Sydney and took an advertising job.
By this time her relationship with Annells, who was invited but did not attend her wedding to Prince Frederik in 2004, had run its course.
As history shows Mary met her Prince at Sydney pub, The Slip Inn, when she was part of a dinner gathering which included Frederik, his brother, Prince Joachim, his cousin, Prince Nikolaos of Greece, and Princess Martha of Norway.
While the royal palace in Copenhagen is home, Melbourne has always held, and continues to hold, a deep affection in Mary’s heart.
It is one of the few places that the Crown Princess can be absorbed into the everyday and be – almost – just another face in the crowd.
Mary has a small, tight band of Melbourne mates which includes Petty, Josephine Rechner, who is godmother to Princess Josephine, Selina Tracey and a sprinkling of others.
She deftly manages to catch up with her friends without attracting attention, travelling with a small security detail and no bombastic vehicle entourage.
She has spent time in Elwood with Petty, with the pair famously spotted in 2022 zipping around the bayside suburbs in Petty’s sporty little red hatchback.
In the past 20 years Mary has made a number of private visits to Melbourne with or without Frederik.
On the agenda for those low key visits are brunches in Brighton at The Pantry, shopping in High Street, Armadale or Church Street, Brighton, and pottering around Elwood.
She has been spotted over the years dining with buddies at The Flower Drum.
On one of her early private visits back to Melbourne with Frederik, locals grabbing a coffee at The Blue Train cafe at Southgate were surprised to see the low key royals having a bite to eat on the balcony at the affordable eatery before jumping on a Jetstar flight to Tasmania.
In 2011 Mary, Frederik and their four children dropped off the radar and spent eight days having a family holiday at a large private home owned by a Melbourne establishment family, overlooking the secluded Point King Beach at Portsea.
The couple hosted a steady stream of buddies from Melbourne and beyond for dinners and held a garden party in the sprawling frontyard of the century-old holiday abode.
Days were spent on the Portsea back beach or secluded Point King beach.
She barely turned a head as she relaxed shopping on Sorrento’s main street and lunching at The Sister’s cafe.
One of Mary’s most glamorous Melbourne moments came when she and Frederik attended a gala dinner at Crown in support of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation. While the royals sat at the head table, there was another table in the Palladium Ballroom that night that was far more interesting.
It was a table of her Melbourne friends who discretely avoided attention, but were there to support her and catch up with her pre and post her official duties on the evening.
In 2002, before her engagement, Mary and Frederik were among the throng in the Flemington Birdcage on Melbourne Cup day as guests in the Moet & Chandon marquee.
The couple were keen punters, studying the form and darting to and from the Birdcage betting boards where they lined with other racegoers to get their bets on.
“Melbourne is a fantastic city,” Mary said of Melbourne in a documentary on her ascent to royalty.
As she steps up to the Danish throne those carefree, under the radar days in Melbourne might be a bit harder to pull off for the new queen.
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