That moment arrived on January 1st, when the Queen of Denmark unexpectedly announced her abdication in the middle of the month, handing over the throne to her son.
Adolescence
"To be precise, he wasn't a rebel, but throughout his adolescence and youth, he seemed very uncomfortable with media attention, as well as with the idea of becoming king," said Gitte Redder, an expert on the Danish royal family.
He only "gained confidence when he was in his early 20s," Ms. Redder said.
But Frederik – who spoke English, French, and German – only truly began to mature after his training in the three branches of the Danish military.
An addition to the queen.
"He's a sports fan; he attends concerts and football games. That makes him even more approachable than his mother," royal expert Redder said.
He met his wife, Mary Donaldson, an Australian citizen and practicing lawyer, at a bar in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games. They tried to raise their four children as normally as possible, mostly sending them to public schools.
The couple are "modern, with a love for pop music, modern art, and sports," according to Olden-Jorgensen.
They "do not represent major changes from the queen," but rather a careful shift to adapt to the times, according to expert Olden-Jorgensen.
"Mom paints, and I exercise. Mom digs up buried objects from long ago, and I bury my head to avoid being recognized during my time in the military. Mom is a master of words. And sometimes I find them incomprehensible," he joked at the Queen's 50th anniversary celebration.
Source
Comment (0)