“I don’t want to lock myself in a fortress. I want to be myself, man,” he once said, insisting that he would stick to it even after taking the throne.
Crown Prince Frederik, like Britain’s King Charles III, is known for his passion for the environment and ecology.
Photo: Reuters/ScanPix
His Australian-born wife, Princess Mary, grew up on the island of Tasmania and was working as a lawyer when the couple met in 2000 in a Sydney bar during the Olympics.
She once admitted in an interview that she did not know at the time of meeting that he was a Danish prince. “Half an hour later someone came up to me and asked – do I know who these people are?”
The couple are said to represent modern values and have tried to give their four children – a daughter, a son and twins – as normal an upbringing as possible, mainly by sending them to public schools.
Unlike British royal tradition, Crown Prince Frederick will not have a formal coronation ceremony. Instead, his accession to the throne will be announced from Amalienbog Palace in Copenhagen.
He will become king of Denmark, which is a constitutional monarchy, as well as Greenland and the Faroe Islands.
Queen Margaret II is the world’s only reigning queen and the longest-reigning current monarch in Europe, having taken the throne after the death of her father, King Frederick IX, in 1972.
The 83-year-old revealed the decision came after a period of reflection following her back surgery in early 2023.
“The operation, of course, made me think about the future – is it time to leave the responsibility to the next generation. I have decided that now is the right time,” she explained.
2024-01-06 22:01:00
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