The true story of how Mary Donaldson and Frederick, the new kings of Denmark, met: “I’m sorry I broke everyone’s hearts”

The love story between Frederick of Denmark and Mary Donaldson is known to have started in 2000 when the couple met during the Sydney Olympics, a sporting event attended by several members of the royal family.

However, the details of the first meeting were few and far between, until people close to them gave several interviews in which they discussed the topic and what kind of crush it looked like.

The Australian was 28 years old, and the future king of Denmark, who will take the throne on January 14 after the abdication of his mother Queen Margaret II, was 32 years old and had a love history marked by controversy.

Amber Petty, one of the bridesmaids at the wedding of Mary Donaldson and Frederick of Denmark, revealed in a 2021 interview that the couple met at an “exclusive private dinner” hosted at the Slip Inn, attended by several members of the royal family who were visiting Australia for summer games.

Although other versions suggested that she was working as an advertising executive when she met the prince in a pub full of people and not knowing his background, reminds the Daily Mail.

“I hate to break everyone’s hearts, but it’s not always about running into random princes in pubs,” Petty mentioned on the show at the time. Channel seven two years ago, reminds the British newspaper.

According to his testimony, it was not a chance meeting but “a dinner organized during the Olympic Games and Mary was invited. Most of the guests were members of royal families.”

Indeed, Mary Donaldson was on the invite list for the event thanks to Beatrice Tarnawski, a woman who once confirmed that she was the “matchmaker” that night of their first date.

Information used by the British media shows that Bruno Gómez-Acebo, nephew of the then King of Spain, asked Tarnawski to “gather” a group of friends, in which he included Mary and other girls.

“We went to the Slip Inn in The Rocks where Mary and the other girls were waiting. When we walked in, Mary was one of the first girls by the door, and Frederik introduced himself and said, ‘Hi, I’m Fred.’ Those words were more than enough to spend a good part of the evening talking very comfortably in the corner.

“The first time we met, we shook hands. I didn’t know he was a Danish prince. Half an hour later someone came up to me and said, ‘Do you know who these people are?’” Mary admitted in an undated interview she now remembers. Daily mail.

They then met again the next night, and later Federico from Denmark began meeting her secretly in Australia until 2003 when they made their first public appearance as a couple.

Finally, Tarnawski was excluded from the guest list at the wedding, which took place in Copenhagen Cathedral on 14 May 2004, because she decided to “sell her story” about how the couple met in Sydney.

On January 14, the couple will become the new kings of Denmark and will be a new royal family accompanied by their four children, with Christian, 18, next in line to the throne. (AND)