Princess Mary’s hilarious and moving speech at Crown Prince Frederik’s 50th birthday
Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary’s moving speech at Crown Prince Frederik’s 50th birthday bash has moved him to tears and brought him to laughter as his Australian wife paid tribute to him. The former Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, who married the future king of Denmark in a modern fairytale romance in 2004, recounted to the guests how her husband swept her off her feet.
On Saturday, the country celebrated the crown prince’s birthday, with the Tasmanian-born Mary launching into a speech at Palace Christianborg in Copenhagen that made the guests and her husband laughed out loud. She described how marrying into the Danish royal family as a young Australian was a daunting experience for her, but she was glad for it.
“I got to know you in shorts and t-shirt, and I remember very clearly the first time you changed from casual to gala,” she said. “It was during my first visit to Denmark where we had celebrated our first New Year’s 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. 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.”
But despite Frederik’s changing looks, Mary said she was glad she fell in love with him. “I am so happy you swept me off my feet and that we dared to fall for each other, not just for a moment, but for life,” she said. As she mentioned their children’s love for him, she had brought Frederik to tears.
“For me, it is in our family moments that I feel most grateful, most united, most in love.” They have four children: Prince Christian, 12; Princess Isabella, 11; and the twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, 7.
Mary also had to include a few goodhearted swipes at Frederik’s corny jokes and his propensity to wearing lycra.
“Mamil stands for a middle-aged man in lycra who wears expensive racing bicycles wearing professional style body-hugging jerseys and shorts,” she said. “Opinions vary over whether lycra and men in their 40s go together. But darling, you still look rather sharp in lycra.”
Frederik, who is the heir apparent to the Danish throne, met Mary during the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. The two conducted a long-distance relationship, with the prince making a number of discreet visits to Australia. When she was identified as his girlfriend by the media, Mary moved to Denmark in late 2001. They got engaged in 2003 and married the following year in what was hailed as a modern fairytale by Australian and European media.
