Team Mary: the real-life squad behind the making of our Crown Princess of Denmark
THERE’S the telemovie, and then there’s the real-life squad who transformed our ‘Mary from Tassie’ into the world’s most stylish princess.
WHEN the credits roll on tonight’s much talked about telemovie, Mary, The Making Of A Princess, you won’t see their names up in lights.
But the real team behind the transformation of “Mary from Tassie” — as Emma Hamilton, the leading lady in Channel 10’s royal biopic introduces herself simply to her future husband — deserve to be recognised for the role they have played in getting the 43-year-old ready to one day ascend the Danish throne.
From palace courtiers to language coaches, it has taken a global village to prepare the one-time marketing specialist into one of the most recognisable and stylish women in the world today.
There were beauty tricks, secret buying trips, right down to lessons in how to accept a bouquet or curtsy to her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe.
But every step of those four years of their long-distance courtship and then 10 years of her marriage to Crown Prince Frederik has seen the former Mary Donaldson emerge every inch the blue blood, in one of the most extraordinary makeovers in history.
While royal watchers will tell you the telemovie doesn’t come close — in parts — to what really happened on that journey, it’s important to give those who really nurtured this fairytale along the way their dues, in this, the real making of an Australian princess.
PER THORNIT
UNTIL his retirement in 2010, Per was one of the most trusted servants of the Danish royal house — first hired in 1985 as the head of the Cabinet Secretariat; but more importantly for Mary, promoted to the role of chief-of-court, a sort of head of household, who held her hand throughout her transition into royal life. At the time of the Crown couple’s engagement, he revealed to me the scale of what Mary had to learn: “once she’s overcome the language then we will move on to understanding the other aspects of Danish and royal life she will need to know” — chaperoning her to meetings with the Prime Minister, key public servants and industry leaders, then overseeing her etiquette lessons suc as how to accept a bouquet in public and when to discreetly pass it on. He was at her side for every royal visit, the go-to man when she needed advice on anything. He even gave her decorating tips, encouraging the young couple to commission Danish artists to paint incredible murals on the walls of their Amalienborg palace walls.
ANJA CAMILLA ALAJDI
EVEN before Mary would be introduced to the world as Crown Prince Frederik’s future bride, she turned to Danish stylist Anja Camilla Alajdi to look the part. A former magazine and TV fashion director, who now acts as the fulltime stylist to the Crown Princess, Alajdi (her mother is Danish and her father is Moroccan) is largely responsible for redirecting Mary away from her sporty, high street clothing choices of her maiden days to one of the world’s great style icons, whether in luxe labels or practical parenting attire. Alajdi would secret a young Mary Donaldson away to fashion capitals like London and Paris for shopping trips to help upgrade her wardrobe to the royal standards she’s now used to — but in return, the 43-year-old has also enjoyed a fairytale romance of her own, meeting her partner, Steen Arnstrom (a former bodyguard to Prince Frederik) through the royal couple. She is also a partner in Danish jewellery brand, Marianne Dulong, one of Mary’s favourites.
SOREN HEDEGAARD
IT was make-up and hair stylist Soren Hedegaard who would get Alajdi the job in Mary’s chamber, after she worked with his actor partner, Preben Kristensen on Danish TV show, Linie 3. Kristensen is one of the most loved comic stars in Denmark (he’s famous for doing a drag impersonation of Queen Margrethe), but Hedegaard has carved out his own fashion following for his work with the Crown Princess. In the days before her engagement was announced, they would sneak out to Copenhagen department stores and test make-up looks on the young Australian at the local Estee Lauder counter. Now regarded as one of Mary’s closest confidantes, he continues to work extensively beyond his royal duties; recently working to makeover the host and judges on Denmark’s version of Strictly Come Dancing (escorting Mary and Princesses Isabella and Josephine back stage to watch rehearsals).
OLE HENRIKSEN
THE Danish skin specialist has long been on the speed dial of some of Hollywood’s most famous faces, including Charlize Theron and Katy Perry. But it was his intervention with Mary Donaldson which earned him a name in the Australian beauty industry, soon after the royal engagement. While he now bases himself in Los Angeles, where he runs an A-list spa, his products are regularly delivered to the palace; and the man himself is on the invite list to Amalienborg whenever he’s home in Copenhagen.
STEEN EVALD
ONE of Denmark’s most sought-after photographers for art and commercial images, Steen Evald is also the Crown couple’s go-to guy when it comes to capturing the special moments in their young family’s life. The rapport he shares with Mary is clear in the relaxed photos he’s produced for both the royal website and also issued around the world to a media hungry for glamorous shots of the Danish princess, her handsome husband and their four photogenic kids. While Mary has developed her own interest in photography, Evald still gets the call up for official portraits, most recently snapping the birthday of Prince Christian.
CAROLINE HEERING
IT is almost as if Caroline Heering was born into royal duty, with her mother Helle Moltke, also a lady-in-waiting at one point to Queen Margrethe. Initially, the 43-year-old befriended Mary when she first moved to Denmark; as she was also dating the prince’s best friend, now her husband, Peter. The university-educated women bonded quickly, with Caroline hosting Mary’s hen’s night at her family home, Lystrup Manor. The Heerings have two daughters, Emilie and Rosemarie (Peter is godfather to Princess Isabella and Caroline is godmother to Prince Vincent; while Crown Prince Frederik is godfather to their daughter Rosemarie). Caroline was Mary’s lady-in-waiting for two years, from 2006, before taking on the role of private secretary with various duties — even doing national army reserve service alongside the princess. She is now on the board of The Mary Foundation.
TANJA ELISE KJAERSGAARD DOKY
DOKY took over the lady-in-waiting role from Heering in 2007, another friend drawn from Mary and Frederik’s social circle. She had previously worked for Burson Marsteller, one of the largest PR companies in the world; and is married to Chris Minh Doky, a Vietnamese-Danish jazz musician. The couple were on the guest list for Princess Isabella’s christening and also attended the second wedding of Prince Joachim’s ex-wife Alexandra to Martin Jorgensen back in 2008 (the Countess recently confirmed she plans to divorce the photographer, 14 years her junior). In May, it was announced that after seven years, Doky was moving back to work in the private sector as head of communications for Maersk, the international shipping container company and one of Denmark’s richest businesses.
CHRISTINE PII
PII comes to her new combined role of lady-in-waiting and private secretary to Mary with an impressive CV — having worked as the deputy head of the Foreign Ministry’s International Law Office for the past 11 years. A law graduate from the University of Copenhagen, the 44-year-old is responsible for organising Mary’s work diary and assisting her at official functions.
Email: holly.byrnes@news.com.au
Twitter: @byrnesh
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