Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark
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Crown Princess Mary of Denmark (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
Crown Princess Mary's father, Dr John Dalgleish Donaldson, alternates as a guest professor at the University of Aarhus and the University of Copenhagen. 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 Oxford University. 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. The Crown Princess's mother was Henrietta Clark Donaldson (née Horne), who was the executive assistant to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania. She died in 1997, following 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.
The Crown Princess has three siblings:
- Jane Alison Stephens (b. 26 December 1965)
- Patricia Anne Bailey (b. 16 March 1968)
- John Stuart Donaldson (b. 9 July 1970)
Education and career
After having attended high school at Taroona High School in Hobart, Australia the Crown Princess attended Hobart College for two years. She completed her studies at the University of Tasmania, which she attended from 1989 until 1994, at which time she graduated with Bachelors of Commerce and Laws (BCom.LLB) degrees. She later qualified for professional certificates in advertising and direct marketing. Prior to her marriage, she worked for DDB Needham in Melbourne, Young and Rubicam in Sydney and Microsoft Business Solutions in Copenhagen, among other employers. She worked as a sales director at Belle Properties, a real estate firm in Sydney. She also taught Business English at a language school in Paris.Courtship
Mary Donaldson met Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark at the Slip Inn, an inner-city pub in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia during the 2000 Summer Olympics. Mary has told about the evening she and her four flatmates went to meet some Spaniards who participated 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 that became the basis of a bestselling book called "Kronprinsesse Mary". "Half an hour later one my flatmates came up to me and asked: Do you know these people are prince this and princess that? Of course we have Queen Elizabeth as 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 that kind of people. But it was nothing more than that to it."Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik became engaged 8 October2003 and were married on 14 May, 2004, in Copenhagen, at Copenhagen Cathedral. In connection with the marriage, she became Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Denmark. The Crown Prince and Crown Princess reportedly spent their honeymoon in Tanzania and Zanzibar, though a Danish newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, said that the royal couple spent part of their honeymoon in Kenya.
Change of citizenship and prenuptial agreement
| Styles of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark | |
|---|---|
| Reference style | Her Royal Highness |
| Spoken style | Your Royal Highness |
| Alternative style | Ma'am |
Child
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 [link] for Australian television in February 2005 that it was "no secret" that they were planning to start a family. Crown Prince Frederik jokingly told Danish reporters that he hoped there would be "kænguruer i pungen" or "kangaroos in the pouch" by the 2008 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.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. [link]
At 01:57 local time on 15 October 2005 Crown Princess Mary gave birth to a Prince, at the Copenhagen University Hospital [link]. The last 10 hours of Mary's labour were spent at the hospital and Crown Prince Frederick 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 Church in Copenhagen. His full name is Christian Valdemar Henri John. Christian is going to be his "king name", Valdemar is an old king name and Henri and John are the names of his two grandfathers.
Residences
The official residence of the Crown Prince and his family is the Chancellery House, an early 18th-century structure that is built by Fredensborg Palace, about 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 Palace complex, which will be their home until renovations are completed on their new home, Brockdorff's Palace, which is also part of Amalienborg and was the home of the Crown Prince's maternal grandparents, King Frederick IX of Denmark and Queen Ingrid, formerly Princess Ingrid of Sweden.
Controversy
In May 2006 Danish press dubbed Mary a 'Nordic Imelda Marcos'. The Australian-born princess earned the tag after an audit of 2005 royal finances revealed Mary and Crown Prince Frederick spent around $2,000 a day on clothes, shoes and furniture. The royal couple spent around $700,000 of taxpayers' money on private expenses last year. Their private spending was cited in the audit as being the key reason why they spent $125,000 over their $2.5 million annual budget. The couple's entertaining band party bill came to $160,000 while magazines and books set them back a further $12,000 the report said. Other embarrassments to Princess Mary have included her uncle-by-marriage, Brendan Geoffrey Johncock, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in Tasmania, and had been invited to the wedding with charges pending, and the recent escapades of royal bridesmaid Amber Petty. Amber Petty was photographed with a member of the Bandidos bikie gang who has since been murdered, and this made front-page news in Denmark at around the time of the christening of Prince Christian, because of Petty's romantic liaison with a married pub owner, Mark Alexander-Urber. Petty claims that Princess Mary has 'approved' her participation in 'Celebrity Survivor', soon to be released on Australia's Seven network.See also
External links
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