Queen Mary of Denmark


Mary is Queen of Denmark as the wife of King Frederik X.
Mary met Frederik while attending the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. They married on 14 May 2004 at Copenhagen Cathedral. They have four children: Christian, Isabella, Vincent and Josephine. Since her marriage, she has carried out engagements on behalf of the Danish monarchy, and she serves as patron of over 30 charitable organisations, including the United Nations Population Fund, the European regional office of the World Health Organization, the Danish Refugee Council and Julemærkefonden. She founded her social organisation, the Mary Foundation, in 2007.
In 2019, Mary was made a rigsforstander, which allows her to act as regent when the monarch is abroad. She became the first Australian-born queen consort of any country upon the abdication of her mother-in-law, Queen Margrethe II, on 14 January 2024. She has the additional title of Countess of Monpezat after her husband was given the title in 2008.

Early life

Mary Elizabeth Donaldson was born 5 February 1972 at Queen Alexandra Hospital, Hobart, Tasmania. She is youngest of four children to Scottish parents, Henrietta, an executive assistant to the vice-chancellor of the University of Tasmania, and John Dalgleish Donaldson, an academic, mathematics professor and member of the Clan Donald. Her paternal grandfather was Captain Peter Donaldson. She was named after her grandmothers, Mary Dalgleish and Elizabeth Gibson Melrose, and was born and raised in Hobart. She has two older sisters, Jane Stephens and Patricia Bailey, and an older brother, John Stuart Donaldson. Her mother died from complications following heart surgery on 20 November 1997, when Mary was 25. In 2001, her father married the British author and novelist Susan Moody.
During her childhood, Mary was involved in sports and other extracurricular activities both at school and elsewhere. She studied music, playing piano, flute, and clarinet, and played basketball and hockey.

Education

Mary began schooling at Clear Lake City Elementary School in Houston, Texas, when her father, a professor of applied mathematics, worked at the Johnson Space Center. She then moved to Sandy Bay, Tasmania, from 1975 to 1977. Her primary education, from 1978 to 1983, was at Waimea Heights with her secondary schooling being at Taroona High School, and at Hobart College. She studied at the University of Tasmania from 1990 to 1994, graduating with a combined Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws degree on 27 May 1995. From 1994 to 1996, she attended a graduate program and qualified with certificates in advertising from the Advertising Federation of Australia and direct marketing from the Australian Direct Marketing Association.
Her native language is English, and she studied French during her secondary education. In 2002, she briefly worked as an English tutor in Paris while dating Crown Prince Frederik. After moving to Denmark and before her marriage, Mary studied Danish as a foreign language at Studieskolen in Copenhagen in 2003.

Career

Mary worked for Australian and global advertising agencies after graduating in 1995. Upon graduation she moved to Melbourne to work in advertising. She became a trainee in marketing and communications with the Melbourne office of DDB Needham, taking a position of account executive. In 1996, she was employed by Mojo Partners as an account manager. In 1998, six months after her mother's death, she resigned and travelled to America and Europe. In Edinburgh, she worked for three months as an account manager with Rapp Collins Worldwide; then, in early 1999, she was appointed as an account director with the international advertising agency Young & Rubicam in Sydney.
In June 2000, Mary moved to a smaller Australian agency, Love Branding, working for a short time as its first account director. In the spring of 2000, she became sales director and a member of the management team of Belle Property, a real estate firm. In the first half of 2002, Mary taught English at a business school in Paris, but upon moving to Denmark permanently, she was employed by Microsoft Business Solutions near Copenhagen as a project consultant for business development, communications and marketing.

Personal life

Courtship and engagement

Mary met Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark at the Slip Inn in 2000 during the Summer Olympics in Sydney. Frederik was at the bar with his brother Prince Joachim, his cousin Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark, as well as the then Felipe, Prince of Asturias and Princess Märtha Louise of Norway. Felipe knew Mary's flatmate. Frederik was not identified by her friends as the Crown Prince of Denmark until after they met. They conducted a long-distance relationship and Frederik made several discreet visits to Australia. On 15 November 2001, the Danish weekly magazine Billed Bladet named Mary as Frederik's girlfriend. She moved from Australia to Denmark in December 2001, while she was working as an English tutor in Paris.
On 24 September 2003, the Danish court announced that Queen Margrethe II intended to give her consent to the marriage at the State Council meeting scheduled for 8 October 2003. Frederik had presented Mary with an engagement ring featuring an emerald-cut diamond and two emerald-cut ruby baguettes, which are similar to the colour of the Dannebrog. The couple became officially engaged on 8 October 2003.

Marriage and children

Mary and Frederik married on 14 May 2004 in Copenhagen Cathedral. The couple reportedly spent their honeymoon in Africa.
The couple have four children:
The Danish Folketing passed a special law giving Mary Danish citizenship upon her marriage, a standard procedure for new foreign members of the royal family. She was previously a dual citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom. Formerly a Presbyterian, she converted to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Denmark upon marriage.
As a native English speaker, Mary's priority from the time of her engagement was to become fluent in Danish, and she acknowledged in several interviews at the time of her engagement and marriage that this was a challenge for her.
Mary and her family reside at Frederik VIII's Palace, one of the four palaces that make up the Amalienborg Palace complex. Since May 2004 they have also resided at the Chancellery House, a building in the park at Fredensborg Palace, during the summer months.
Mary is a keen equestrian and has competed at several dressage events.
Mary is the godmother of, among others, Princess Estelle of Sweden, who was also given the secondary name Mary in her honour, and her nephew, Count Henrik of Monpezat.

Queen consort

Mary became Queen of Denmark upon the abdication of Queen Margrethe II and the subsequent accession of Mary's husband as King Frederik X on 14 January 2024. After he was proclaimed king from the balcony of Christiansborg Palace, Mary joined Frederik on the balcony to wave to the crowds. The next day, 15 January, the royal family attended a ceremony at the Folketing to mark the change of monarch, and on 21 January, they attended a service at Aarhus Cathedral.
The King and Queen made their first state visits from 6–7 and 14–15 May 2024 when they visited Sweden and Norway. In June, they toured one of the autonomous territories of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland. In June 2025, they toured the other territory, the Faroe Islands.

Public life, charities and patronages

Following the wedding, the Crown Prince couple embarked upon a summer working-tour of mainland Denmark aboard the royal yacht Dannebrog, then travelled to Greenland and the 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2005, during the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen, the royal family was involved in related events throughout the year. Frederik and Mary marked the anniversary in London, New York, and in Australia, where she was made Honorary Hans Christian Andersen Ambassador to Australia in the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House.
After becoming Crown Princess, Mary made a number of international visits, and Frederik and Mary participated in the reburial ceremonies for Empress Maria Feodorovna in Denmark and Saint Petersburg in 2005. In November 2009, Mary made a surprise visit to Danish soldiers in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. One of her stops was FOB Armadillo.
During a Council of State on 2 October 2019, the Queen's request to appoint Mary a rigsforstander, a functioning regent when the monarch or the heir is out of the country, was approved by the government. After having sworn to respect the Danish constitution, she became the first person not born into the royal family to assume the position of rigsforstander since Queen Ingrid in 1972.
Mary was voted Woman of the Year 2008 by the Danish magazine Alt for damerne, donating her cash reward to charity. She was interviewed by Parade Magazine, on television programs of Andrew Denton, and by USA Today.
She serves on the board of directors of The Royal Danish Collection.

Patronages and interests

Since 2004, Mary has steadily worked to establish her relationships with various organisations, their issues, missions, programmes and staff. Her patronages range across areas of culture, the fashion industry, humanitarian aid, support for research and science, social and health patronages and sport. The organisations of which she is patron have reported positive outcomes through their relationships with her and there are various reports in the Danish media and on some of the organisations' websites about her being quite involved in her working relationship with them. She is currently involved in supporting anti-obesity programs through the World Health Organization, Regional Office for Europe.
In the context of immigrant issues in Denmark, Mary has visited the disadvantaged migrant areas of Vollsmose, Gellerup, and Viborg, and has participated in integration projects including the teaching of the Danish language to refugees. As patron of the Danish Refugee Council, Mary visited Uganda and East Africa and supports fundraising for the region.
Mary has played an active role in promoting an anti-bullying program based on an Australian model through the auspices of Denmark's Save the Children. She is also involved in a campaign to raise awareness and safe practices among Danes about skin cancer through The Danish Cancer Society.
Mary is also an Honorary Life Governor of the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute based at the Garvan Institute/St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, a member of the International Committee of Women Leaders for Mental Health and a member of various sporting clubs. In June 2010, it was announced that Mary had become Patron of UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, "to support the agency's work to promote maternal health and safer motherhood in more than 150 developing nations". Mary lends her support to a number of other "one-off" Danish causes, industry events, and international conferences. In 2011, the Westmead Cancer Centre at Westmead Hospital in Sydney was renamed the Crown Princess Mary Cancer Care Centre Westmead.
Mary is an active patron of Denmark's third-highest-earning export industry, the fashion industry, and is Patron of the Copenhagen Fashion Summit.