King Frederik of Denmark has pulled at Aussies’ heartstrings after reflecting on his Sydney “meet-cute” with Queen Mary.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Danish royal shared a touching tribute to his wife and her Australian homeland while in Canberra on Sunday, even dubbing Australia his “second home” duringe the state banquet speech.<\/p>\n
Recounting the moment he met his wife-to-be at the Slip Inn pub in 2000, the 57-year-old could only gush about the country for introducing him to his Tasmanian-born wife, 54.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“For me, Australia has held a very special place in my heart ever since I slipped into that bar and lost it in a conversation that has never ended,” he lovingly shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The King then went on to highlight how the couple’s fairytale romance had united two nations – Denmark and Australia – that may not have had much to do with each other beforehand.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Once upon a time, Denmark perhaps did not resonate widely in Australia. Then something changed,” he shared.<\/p>\n
“In 2004, your Mary and I were married, and with that, Denmark once again had a Crown Princess. From that moment on, everyone ‘down under’ knew of the Nordic country ‘up over’.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He then noted the great sacrifice his wife had made for him: leaving her home and moving across the globe “as far as one can possibly go”.<\/p>\n
“For that, I will be forever grateful,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Australia is our second home. Whether we come here for a family visit or a State Visit, we feel both excited and entirely at ease.”<\/p>\n
He thanked his Australian family for embracing him and making him feel “truly welcome”, before admitting he, too, had embraced “everything Australian”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I have even come to understand and appreciate that cricket \u2013 like AFL \u2013 is not only a time-consuming part of your national heritage but also an essential form of social bonding \u2013 the Aussie way.”<\/p>\n
Concluding the heartwarming speech, Frederik shared a touching toast to the “people of Australia and Denmark”, adding: “May our friendship continue to flourish and may the story we share continue happily ever after”.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On Monday, the heartbreaking reason for Queen Mary’s much-anticipated Australian tour was brought to light, with an insider revealing that her beloved father, John Donaldson, is battling a “decline” in his health.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMary insisted they wind up the tour in Hobart so she can stay on and spend as much time as possible with her dad,\u201d a source told Woman’s Day.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 84, John\u2019s not been able to travel for some time \u2013 he was devastated to miss her coronation [in January 2024] \u2013 but for Mary, every visit carries more weight as his decline is more visible to her than her siblings who see him all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The insider adds that Mary’s “homecoming isn\u2019t just diplomatic, it’s personal”.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Frederik of Denmark has pulled at Aussies’ heartstrings after reflecting on his Sydney “meet-cute” with Queen Mary.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[225,23142,28,27,26,12619,23671,23670,10816],"class_list":["post-41910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-denmark","tag-australia","tag-australian-tour","tag-danish-royals","tag-danmark","tag-denmark","tag-king-frederik-x","tag-queen-mary-denmark","tag-slip-inn","tag-sydney"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116244606171526948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}