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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (Kronprinsesse Mary in Danish), née Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, born 5 February 1972 in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, is the wife of Crown Prince Frederik, the heir apparent to the Danish throne.
Family The Crown Princess's father, Dr John Dalgleish Donaldson, alternates as a guest professor at the University of Aarhus and the University of Copenhagen. In July 2006 he was engaged as a "windmill ambassador" to promote windmill technology on behalf of Danish commercial interests. Previously he was a professor in the Division of Applied Mathematics at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in South Korea. Until 2003, he was employed by the University of Tasmania, where he was head of the Department of Mathematics and, later, Academic Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology. He has taught at the University of Oxford. He also was a senior fellow at the National Science Foundation in Houston, Texas, in the 1970s, and was a visiting professor at the University of Houston. Mary's mother was Henrietta Clark Donaldson (née Horne), who was the executive assistant to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania. Etta, as she was known, died in 1997 from complications six weeks after a heart operation. Both of the Crown Princess's parents were born in Scotland and moved to Tasmania in 1963. In 2001, John Dalgleish Donaldson married Susan Elizabeth (née Horwood). As Susan Moody, she writes popular crime novels. She also writes under the names Susannah James and Susan Madison. In 2006 she taught Crime Fiction at the University of Copenhagen (Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies). The Crown Princess has three siblings: Education and career Mary attended Taroona High School in Hobart, Australia until Year 10, after which she attended Hobart College for two years, where she matriculated for university. She completed her studies at the University of Tasmania which she attended from 1989 until 1994, when she graduated with the combined degrees of Bachelors of Commerce and Laws (BCom.LLB). Mary later qualified for professional certificates in advertising and direct marketing. Prior to her marriage, Crown Princess Mary worked for advertising agencies DDB Needham, in Melbourne, Young & Rubicam and Love Branding in Sydney and Microsoft Business Solutions in Copenhagen, among other employers. In Sydney Mary also worked as the sales director at Belle Property, a high-end real estate firm. Mary is often incorrectly described as a former real estate agent because she worked with this company, however her position was managing the Belle brand operations which involved more than the real estate arm of the business. In Paris, France Mary taught Business English at Transfer, a language school. Courtship and Engagement Mary Donaldson met Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark at the Slip Inn, an inner-city bar in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia during the 2000 Summer Olympics. The date was Saturday 16 September. Mary recounted in an interview that her first meeting with Frederik was serendipitous as she had decided to take up an invitiation from her flatmate at the last moment to meet some Spaniards participating in the Games. "It was a party of some Australians and two nephews of the Spanish King, plus Crown Prince Frederik, Prince Joachim, Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Princess Märtha Louise. I didn't know who they were", she told Danish journalist Anne Wolden-Raethinge (Ninka) in a series of interviews in 2004 for what became a bestselling book called "Kronprinsesse Mary". "Half an hour later one of my flatmates came up to me and asked, 'Do you know these people are?' Of course we have Queen Elizabeth as the head of state, but in many ways we are a kind of republic, we don't have royals in Australia, so it was kind of unusual to run into those kind of people. But there was nothing more to it than that." Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik became engaged on 8 October 2003. Marriage Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik married on 14 May 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral, which was adorned with roses, carnations, lilies, peonies, sweet peas, Scottish bluebells and Tasmanian snow gum (eucalyptus). Mary was accompanied by her three Australian bridesmaids: sisters Jane Stephens and Patricia Bailey and best friend Amber Petty. The three were responsible for Mary’s six metre duchess satin train. Mary wore an ivory satin dress with a scallop-shaped hemline created by the Milan based Danish designer, Uffe Frank. He also designed the bridesmaids' and flower girls' dresses. The flower girls were three of Mary's nieces: Erin, Maddison and Kate. After the ceremony Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik took part in a two kilometre carriage procession through the streets of Copenhagen. The procession allowed the thousands of wellwishers who had flooded the city streets to share in the happy occasion. The couple went to Amalienborg where they appeared on the balcony and were greeted by a sea of waving flags. A wedding banquet followed at Fredensborg Palace in a candlelit marquee, where speeches were given by Crown Prince Frederik, Queen Margrethe, Prince Henrik and Mary’s father, John Donaldson. The Crown Prince Couple reportedly spent their honeymoon in Tanzania (some reports say they climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro) and Zanzibar, though a Danish tabloid newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, said that the royal couple spent part of their honeymoon in Kenya. Change of citizenship and prenuptial agreement The Danish Folketing (parliament) passed a special law giving Mary Donaldson, who was a citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom, Danish citizenship upon her wedding, a standard procedure for new foreign members of the royal family. A Presbyterian, she agreed to become a Lutheran. Mary signed a prenuptial agreement exactly like the ones her commoner father-in-law and her commoner sister-in-law had signed when they entered the royal family. The agreement limits any claim on the assets of her spouse and the royal family. Children It was widely expected after their wedding that the Crown Prince Couple would soon have children. Crown Princess Mary told Andrew Denton in an interview for Australian television in February 2005 that it was "no secret" that they were planning to start a family. At the 2004 Summer Olympics Crown Prince Frederik jokingly told Danish reporters that he hoped there would be "kænguruer i pungen" or "kangaroos in the pouch" by the 2008 Summer Olympics, an allusion to the female kangaroo that carries a juvenile (called a joey) in a pouch on the belly for up to a year. Moreover, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess were seen buying baby booties in a Tasmanian shop on the final day of their private vacation after their February-March 2005 official Australian tour. On 25 April 2005 the Danish royal court announced that the Crown Princess was pregnant with her first child, due to be born in October. At 01:57 local time on 15 October 2005 Crown Princess Mary gave birth to a Prince, at the Copenhagen University Hospital. The last 10 hours of Mary's labour were spent at the hospital and Crown Prince Frederik was present for the delivery. The Prince was healthy with an apgar score of 10 (out of 10) after 1 minute, weighed 3.5 kg (7.7 lb) and measured 51 cm (20 ins). The name of the Prince was announced as Prince Christian of Denmark at the baptism, held on 21 January 2006 at Christiansborg Palace Chapel in Copenhagen. His full name is Christian Valdemar Henri John. Should he ascend to the Danish throne, Christian XI will be his regal name and number. Valdemar is a name associated with the Danish royal family for centuries. Henri and John are the names of his two grandfathers. On 26 October, 2006, the Danish court announced that Mary is pregnant with her second child, due to be born at Copenhagen University Hospital in early May, 2007. Residences The official residence of the Crown Prince and his family is The Chancellery House, an early 18th-century structure that is within Fredensborg Palace, about 40 km (25 miles) north of Copenhagen. It was previously the home of the Crown Prince's maternal grandmother, Queen Ingrid. They also have a temporary apartment in Copenhagen, at Moltke's Palace, a part of the Amalienborg complex. This is their city base until renovations are completed on their permanent city residence, Brockdorff's Palace, which also is part of Amalienborg Palace. That building was also the home of the Crown Prince's maternal grandparents, King Frederik IX of Denmark and Queen Ingrid, formerly Princess Ingrid of Sweden. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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