Today Berlingske published a very long interview with Crown Princess Mary of Denmark on the occasion of her 40th birthday. What boring drivel. She says nothing of interest or import, but she does lie throughout and contradict herself. A big mouthful indeed got her to Denmark! Stuffing little Freddles in her piehole did the trick. She talks about Africa, work, travel, but you’ll notice that she’s really talking about herself through all of it. Oh, and she reads Royal Dish and this blog because there is no negative press in Denmark except for skanky, trash magazines like Ekstra Bladet. In this interview, she shows no real emotional connection to anything, including her husband and children. Even the accompanying photographs, by Linda Hendriksen, in a break from the Steens typical of the royal court, convey nothing but coldness and a blank personality with a suspicion of calculation because of her contradictions. No charisma, no personality, no warmth. Just like the biting cold weather in Copenhagen today. Coincidence?
Photo Gallery: When Mary Was Named Donaldson
I Think It’s Wonderful Getting Older
Crown Princess Mary turns 40 on Sunday. In an exclusive interview with Berlingske, she talks about the long journey since meeting Crown Prince Frederik at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.
Crown Princess Mary turns 40 today. To Berlingske she talks about the long journey since she met Crown Prince Frederik of twelve years ago. About the transformation into Princess, about the joy of her work – and especially her family. But also about uncertainty, “Did I do it well enough?”
Crown Princess Mary masters the rare art of being completely present in the moment. Simultaneously, she also wants to be in control of things, one perceives. Right down to the details. Like when we are in connection with the photo shoot down in the Royal Couple’s private garden behind Frederik VIII’s palace.
The winter sun makes Sunday’s sleet blink like crystals on the lawn. The family dog Ziggy jumps all around; he sees his chance to lure Mary into playing football. The Crown Princess delivers a few precise shots with gusto, while the photographer tries to capture the Crown Princess of Denmark.
Amid all the fuss and effort to make everyone comfortable, Crown Princess Mary breaks away:
“Hey, the lights must be on during the day.”
She caught sight of the little band spotlights, hiding in the lawn along the wall toward Toldbodgade [Street] and Amaliehaven [the harbour]. The lights are indeed turned on even though you barely know it in the daylight. But it is a mistake, and I wonder if the Crown Princess ensures that they will take care of it.
The garden behind Frederik VIII’s Palace is not flashy, but still pretty much an urban garden. There is room for a barbecue feast, football and trampoline when the weather again turns playful. While we walk around the garden, cannon thunder sounds in the distance.
The time is noon, and it is the day when Denmark has gained another new little princess. That same morning, Princess Marie gave birth to her and Prince Joachim’s first daughter, and so Queen Margarethe now has grandchild number eight.
Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik have delivered four of them; the two latest arrivals, twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, will be on 8 January celebrate their first birthday. The party was held in the Great Hall in Frederik VIII’s palace.
The newly restored mansion has already been the setting for everything from “delightful guests to popcorn,” as the Crown Princess said.
“It is a house that must be lived in, and we are a young family. It must ensure that our children will want to invite their friends home. It should not be so rigid that they can not do anything, but of course it’s not as if they are just allowed to go crazy in the Great Hall.”
2011 has been an eventful year for the Royal Couple. They became parents of twins, and a few weeks before birth the family moved from Fredensborg to Copenhagen. From the more intimate Chancellery at Fredensborg Castle to Frederik VIII’s palace at Amalienborg.
A CHALLENGING JOURNEY
For Crown Princess Mary the twins and the new home at Amalienborg are the culmination of a journey that began when she was twelve years ago met with Crown Prince Frederik during the Sydney Olympics in 2000.
What thoughts do you have on the long journey, now that you have attained the age of forty years?
“40 years is a milestone, but I do not really think that the day has filled up much of my thoughts. I think rather that I run up to my birthday – maybe the entire last year – having found myself in a reflective period of my life,” says the Crown Princess and she recognises that although it has been ‘a wonderful journey,’ then it also sometimes has been more challenging than she might have admitted to herself.
“Earlier I reflected not so much about it, maybe because it’s all happened so fast: coming to a new country, getting a new life, a new role. To be married, to learn a new culture and get to know a new society. Coming from the other side of the earth with a completely different upbringing and so I had to fill this role in an institution like the monarchy, which is so strongly rooted in all Danes.
IT WAS A BIG MOUTHFUL
“I felt very strongly that I should prove that I could live up to expectations. Therefore I tried to control as much as I am now even able to check, and perhaps I closed the doors to some sides of my personality,” says Crown Princess Mary who feels at any rate that she was always herself.
“But maybe in a slightly limited version. I think it was my way of protecting myself. And probably also reflect a natural uncertainty, when you consider that a person from Tasmania landed in the Danish royal family. I think over the years I have learned to give myself more slack. But I could be better at it.”
How did you approach the role of Crown Princess?
“I have always felt that I had hold of the pages that were important to me and the things that interested me; how do I use my abilities and skills for the benefit of Denmark? How do I best represent my country as the person I am? Of course I have also tried every advice. And I have observed and learned from all the other family members. How do they do it? How can I contribute to the big picture while being myself in my area? And it’s those personal touches that all members of the royal family have.”
Her father-in-law, the Prince Consort, once said that there is no manual for the job as prince consort. Similarly, there are probably no manuals for Crown Princesses?
“No, not formally, although I have read that I went to princess school. Sometimes one might have wished it, but first and foremost that you have to learn and know your country. For if I must stand as a representative of my country externally and also internally, then I must know the country well. I think you need to feel your way forward, and then you have to follow you heart, because you must work with it throughout the rest of your life. ”
