On Sunday, an Australian icon will become the Queen of Denmark. We’re talking, of course, about Mary Donaldson, the Tasmanian whose chance encounter with Prince Frederik during the Sydney Olympics led to her marrying into one of the most popular royal families in the world.

Righto, start me off with the key facts on Mary…
Born on 5 February 1972, Mary Elizabeth Donaldson was born in Hobart as the youngest of 4 children. Her mother Etta was an executive assistant to the Vice Chancellor at the University of Tasmania, and her father John was a mathematics professor.

Tasmania must be proud…
For sure. Mary went through primary and secondary school in Tasmania, and after school, she went to the University of Tasmania from 1990 to 1994. Following uni, she did courses in advertising and marketing.

This is sounding all very normal so far…
She had a very normal early life… With her qualifications, Mary moved to Melbourne and worked in advertising, but after a few short years of setting herself up, tragedy struck the Donaldson family. Etta died unexpectedly due to complications from heart surgery. Her mother was just 55yo at the time – that was when Mary was in her mid-20s.

How sad…
It was a real blow to the family, and Mary has since talked about what a difficult time that was for her personally. After her mother’s death, Mary spent about a year travelling and working through Europe.

What happened next?
By early 2000, she’d returned to Australia, where she started working in Sydney as a sales director at the real estate business Belle Property. Now, Sydney in the year 2000 meant the arrival of the Summer Olympics, including some royal guests…

I see where this is going…
Yep. One man in town was the Crown Prince of Denmark – a man named Frederik. He was in town in support of Denmark’s sailing team. 

And this is when Mary and Frederik met?
Yep – that was 16 September 2000. Prince Frederik was bar hopping around Sydney with a bunch of other Euro royals… and invited along was the housemate of one of the Aussie organisers, Our Mary.

Give us the details…
Well, Mary later said that he introduced himself simply as Fred – and it was half an hour before someone told her that she was actually hanging out with a bunch of young royals. But as the story goes, Mary and Frederik hit it off that night, and Mary has said that once they started talking, they never really stopped…

How did their relationship develop?
Frederik did go back to Denmark after the Olympics were over, but he was back 2 weeks later, and he made a handful of other trips to Australia during the next year. Surprisingly, their relationship stayed a secret from both the Danish press and the Australian press for an entire year.

Who outed them?
It was a Danish publication in 2001, and then in 2002, Mary moved to Denmark. The couple got married in 2004, which meant that Mary renounced her Australian citizenship and became a Dane.

Right, so what’s happening there?
On New Year’s Day, Frederik’s mother Queen Margrethe II announced that she would abdicate, which is a fancy way of saying she’s giving up the throne. This brings us to Sunday, when Mary and Frederik will ascend to the throne.

So tell me a bit about the Danish royals…
They are the most popular monarchy in the world. Denmark doesn’t have a huge tabloid media like the UK, so there’s a lot said about that being behind a different relationship the people have with the royals, even in this modern day and age. And the second thing to point to is their incredible Queen. 

Queen Margrethe?
Yes, and for the past 52 years, she has been a steady hand. She was the first woman to lead Denmark in centuries, after a post-World War II rule change that allowed women to ascend to the throne. She’s been quite the character, too…

Tell me more…
For one, she’s known for her lifelong habit of chain smoking – a habit she’s recently kicked… She has also been called one of the world’s grumpiest royals after the times she’s told her people off. For example, she was quite stern in a televised speech during COVID when she scolded Danes who were breaking lockdown rules…

Anything else?
Well, the story of her relationship with her husband is also worth telling.

What story?
Margarethe’s husband was Henrik – he was a French commoner. She met him when she was 25yo and a student at the London School of Economics, and they married before she became Queen. But when Margarethe ascended to the throne, Henrik did not become King… 

What happened?
He had the title of Prince Consort, and it appears that he was not happy about that. Now, stick with us, but Queen Margarethe has for the past 20 years been building a fancy glass sarcophagus for her and her husband to be entombed in when they die… but towards the end of his life, Henrik became so annoyed that she wouldn’t make him King, that he refused to be entombed in it. 

Dramatic…
Yep, and when Henrik died in 2018, he was cremated. And it’s not the only drama in the Danish royal family.

Who else is squabbling?
So Margarethe and Henrik shared 2 children, one of whom is Prince Frederik, and then his younger brother Prince Joachim. Last year, Margarethe stripped Joachim’s children of their royal titles, which she later said that the change was a “necessary future-proofing of the monarchy”… but Joachim was not happy.

What did he say?
He says that he had 5 days notice and that his children were being mistreated… 

Yikes. Anything else to note?
While we’re on domestic matters, we probably should mention the rumours that were swirling around Frederik at the end of last year…

Uh oh…
Mmm… So, at the end of last year, a Spanish magazine published photos of Prince Frederik with a Mexican socialite. That woman has categorically denied a romantic relationship, and the Danish royal family said that they don’t comment on rumours and insinuations…

Ok, but back to the happy stuff…
Sure.

What’s happening this weekend?
We should say that Frederik and Mary’s proclamation as King and Queen is not going to be anywhere near as grand as King Charles’s coronation… Sunday is being described as a “changeover”. It’s all happening overnight for us – the formal public bit is at about 1am Monday morning AEDT, so it’s not a friendly timezone for us Aussies.

Long live the Queen…
Indeed. What a story…

Squiz recommends:

Reading: The Financial Times’ expansive interview with Mary (and the photos are incredible).

Reading: New Idea’s run-down of what’s happening in Denmark this Sunday.