FACTS
Who is Queen Mary of Denmark? Everything to know about the Australian-born royal
She once went to school in Texas!
Denmark has a new Queen: Queen Mary! The Australian-born royal has been married to Queen Margrethe II’s eldest son, King Frederik X, since 2004.
“The joy and the strength you give me is like the sun in the daytime which, with its radiance, melts all doubts and darkness on earth,” Frederik told his new bride at their wedding reception. “And like the moon at night, you shine with a watchful and delicate beam of gentleness, which extinguishes the mischief and deceit used by the symbols of darkness.”
He ended his speech saying, “I love you Mary. Come, let us go. Come, let us see! Throughout a thousand worlds, weightless love awaits.”
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So, just who is Mary? Continue reading to learn all about the Queen of Denmark...
1. Mary was born on Feb. 5, 1972 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
2. Her parents, John Dalgleish Donaldson and Henrietta Clark Donaldson, were married in Edinburgh, Scotland and emigrated to Australia in 1963.
3. Her mother, Henrietta, passed away on Nov. 20, 1997.
4. The royal briefly attended school in the United States. Per the Danish Royal House, Mary’s “schooling began in 1974 and 1975 at Clear Lake City Elementary School in Houston, Texas.”
5. She graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1994 with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Law.
6. Danish is her second language.
7. She met her future husband in Australia during the 2000 Olympics. “Sometimes we hit the target without even aiming. That is how I think of our first meeting. A stroke of good luck that became a choice,” Mary said in 2018.
While it’s been reported that the royal couple met at the Slip Inn pub, Amber Petty, who was one of Mary’s bridesmaids, said on Sunrise, “I’m sorry to break everybody’s hearts, but it’s not always about randomly bumping into princes in pubs.”
“It wasn’t just a random meeting,” Amber added. “It was an organised small dinner during the Olympics and Mary happened to be invited and most of the guests happened to be royals.”
8. She didn’t know Frederik was a Crown Prince when they met. “The first time that we met, or shook hands, I did not know he was the Crown Prince of Denmark,” Mary’s previously admitted. “It was perhaps half an hour or so later that someone came up to me and said, ‘Do you know who these people are? I said, ‘No.’ And then we found out.”
9. In her speech at Frederik’s 50th birthday gala banquet in 2018, Mary recalled her first visit to Denmark. She said, “It was during my first visit to Denmark where we had celebrated our first New Years together. I was sitting in the couch in your living room when you said that you should get ready for dinner, a dinner that is always held on 1st of January. At that time, I really didn’t know so much about that part of your world. So, I didn’t give it much thought. You left the room, as the man I knew, and came back in full gala uniform. And if I had known Danish at the time, I would probably have thought to myself “aij, hvor har jeg scoret over evne” (wow – I’ve really scored above my league). It was suddenly a very different image of you that was new to me. Deeply impressive and daunting at the same time. But your eyes and your smile were the same. Gala or not.”
10. Their engagement was announced in October of 2003.
11. She and Frederik got married on May 14, 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral. In the book Mary H.K.H., Mary admitted that her wedding day was “very overwhelming.”
“One piece of advice I got before my wedding, which I think most people get, was to enjoy it, take it all in and just be present. This was easier said than done. The day was very overwhelming,” Mary shared in the book, according to Royal Central.
“Adventurous, landmark and overwhelming. I had to say ‘yes’ both to the love of my life and to my new country,” she continued. “In addition, not only in front of our families and friends but also in front of the whole of Denmark.”
12. Mary and her husband have four children. She became a mom for the first time in 2005 with the birth of her son Crown Prince Christian. Her second child Princess Isabella was born in 2007, followed by twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine in 2011.
