By Rob Harris
More than 20 years after a chance meeting in a Sydney bar, one-time real estate agent Mary Donaldson will complete her journey from Tasmanian law student to queen of Denmark.
Right now, it is as much of a shock as it was a certainty. Her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe II, unexpectedly announced that she would abdicate on January 14, at the age of 83.
Denmark’s Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary at the Sydney Opera House in a file photo.Credit: Dean Lewins
It caught even veteran observers of Europe’s oldest ruling monarchy unawares. The family was told of the decision ahead of the speech, the palace told reporters afterwards.
Affectionately referred to as the “Ashtray Queen” because of her fondness for cigarettes, Margrethe has been in ill health of late, but had given no hint such a drastic move was in the offing.
A third cousin to the late Elizabeth II through Queen Victoria, she remarked in her annual New Year’s Eve speech that a recent back operation had made her reflect that it might be “time to pass the responsibility on to the next generation”.
“Time takes its toll, and the number of ailments increases. One cannot undertake as much as one managed in the past,” she said.
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.Credit: AP
The only meaningful precedent was set by King Eric III, who abdicated in 1146 for unknown reasons.
Margrethe’s planned departure leaves the 51-year-old crown princess, who herself has become one of the busiest royals in Europe, with just two weeks before she becomes queen alongside her husband, Frederik.
Having long been a diligent student of her calling, she appears well and truly prepared.
The Danes fell hard a long time ago for their future queen, who has emerged as a progressive representative by immersing herself in work of a big-scale and global nature. As a result republicanism has remained a fringe movement in Denmark and polls consistently indicate that the monarchy enjoys the support of at least 70 per cent of the public.
Marrying her prince at the Copenhagen Cathedral on May 14, 2004, Mary renounced her Australian and United Kingdom citizenship – acquired through her Scottish-born parents – and converted from Presbyterianism to Lutheranism. She learnt the language, completed a military education for the Danish Home Guard and now holds the rank of captain.
She announced herself on the world stage through her participation in the first-ever Global Fashion Agenda, the Danish-led international sustainability summit, about 13 years ago, which has since become a frontrunner in the environmental conversation around fashion and boasted an extraordinary list of influential speakers.
But in recent years it has been her humanitarian work that has impressed her adopted homeland and given her a powerful platform.
“I’ve always had a strong sense of justice: that everyone should have the same opportunities, no matter where you come from,” she told the Financial Times in a 2022 interview.
“Understanding that inequality and lack of respect for human rights were root causes for maternal mortality – that still today, a woman can risk losing life by giving birth – was where my journey started.”
She has also become a prominent advocate for women’s reproductive rights – historically a taboo subject for a future queen – as well as maternal health, sexual and reproductive rights in developing countries and international LGBT rights. She later became chief executive of Save the Children International.
In the two years before the pandemic, she undertook more than 20 working trips to Kenya with the gender-equality organisation Women Deliver, to Indonesia with the United Nations Populations Fund and to Ethiopia with the Danish minister for development co-operation. A talented speaker, she delivered passionate speeches at human rights summits, and served as patron for the World Health Organisation.
She travelled to Burkina Faso in 2021 to raise awareness of the plight of women affected by issues such as genital mutilation, forced marriage, underage pregnancy and education barriers.
The next queen continues a packed agenda covering areas such as early childhood development and work against bullying.
In a 2019 interview with The Australian Women’s Weekly, the princess revealed that moving to the other side of the world was difficult.
“Moving to Denmark was a huge change in my life – a new culture, new language, new friends, and another way of life,” she told the magazine. “I did experience a feeling of loneliness – short-term – when I first moved.
“I see it as quite natural that at times I felt quite alone or a little bit like I was on the outside looking in.”
Denmark’s royal family has had a difficult year after the queen decided to remove royal titles from the children of Prince Joachim, her second child. She did this as part of efforts to slim the monarchy and give her grandchildren more normal lives, but it led to unprecedented public criticism of the monarch by her own family. Joachim said his four children had been “hurt” by the decision, leading the queen to apologise.
In recent weeks, there had also been speculation around a late-night appearance Frederik made with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova. Casanova has dismissed speculation of any romantic links as rubbish.
Rumours of an affair followed Mary and Frederik to Australia, where they travelled separately in early December, with three of their four children.
The princess was pictured on the Sydney Harbour Bridge skywalk with the twins in a photo automatically taken of each group of walkers. It was posted on the bridge’s Instagram account before later being deleted.
Princess Mary and Prince Frederik at the Glyptotek museum in Copenhagen in November.Credit: Getty
Mary has kept a dignified silence, sharing only a short personal message on her account for her Mary Foundation charity, which aims to fight social isolation.
“Time is a peculiar thing,” she wrote. “The more years you have covered, the faster the next year seems to pass by. At the same time, you become more and more aware of how precious every moment – and every year – is.”
Margrethe on New Year’s Eve thanked her successor-in-waiting and daughter-in-law for their “crucial … support and assistance” over the years and said she hoped they would be accorded the same “trust and affection” that she had received from the Danish public.
“They deserve that. Denmark deserves that,” she said.
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