Son’s ‘affair’ may have convinced Danish Queen to abdicate throne
THE surprise abdication of Denmark’s Queen may be a calculated strategy to save the marriage of her son and heir following rumours that he had an affair with a Mexican actress.
Queen Margrethe II became the first Danish monarch to step down in 500 years when she announced her abdication live on television in a traditional New Year’s Eve address.
She will be succeeded by her son, Crown Prince Frederik, 55, who is married to Crown Princess Mary, 51, an Australian whom he met in a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympics.
The crown prince, who had a reputation as a playboy in his youth, has been dogged by recent rumours that he had an affair with a Mexican socialite.
He was photographed by a Spanish magazine strolling around Madrid with Genoveva Casanova in November, visiting a Picasso exhibition and reportedly sharing an intimate dinner. The magazine published photographs which it said showed the Crown Prince leaving Ms Casanova’s apartment the morning after the alleged dinner date.
Ms Casanova, 47, who has appeared in reality TV shows, has categorically denied having any romantic relationship with Crown Prince Frederik.
The Danish royals have not commented on the reports. But the unexpected abdication could be a deliberate tactic to propel her son into the role of king and to put his marriage to Crown Princess Mary on a new footing, royal experts said.
“It’s possible that the Queen took this action because she would have been terrified of the marriage breaking up and the royal family losing Mary. It would have caused major problems. The Queen has always seen Mary as a tremendous asset,” said Phil Dampier, an author and commentator.
“It seems an extraordinary coincidence that she should make this unexpected announcement just a couple of months after stories emerged of the Crown Prince supposedly having an affair. In two weeks’ time, the Prince and Princess will be pitched together as King and Queen and they will have to get on with it. The Queen may be thinking that they will patch up their differences and it will save their marriage.”
As recently as 2016, the Queen had rejected the possibility of abdication. “It’s always been: you stay as long as you live. That’s what my father did and my predecessors. And the way I see it too,” she said. Many Danes had expected her to remain monarch until her death.
“It came completely out of the blue. I think a lot of Danes are quite shocked by it,” said Mr Dampier. “The Queen seemed to be in reasonable health. She suffered from back pain but had recently had an operation so you would think that would enable her to carry on in the role.”
Lars Hovbakke Sorensen, a historian and an expert on the Danish royals, said Crown Princess Mary, who is originally from Tasmania and was working as a marketing executive when she met the Crown Prince in a bar in Sydney, is hugely popular. Opinion polls show that she is as popular as Queen Margrethe. About 80 per cent of Danes support the monarchy.”
He thinks the abdication was motivated more by the Queen’s concern that her son should not languish as Crown Prince for too long. She wants him to avoid the fate of Britain’s Prince Charles, who only acceded to the throne at the age of 73 after Queen Elizabeth died in September 2022 at the age of 96.
“People in Europe are living for longer and there was the risk that you might have an old Crown Prince eventually acceding to the throne. Abdication was a way of avoiding the Prince Charles situation,” said Prof Sorenson, an associate professor at University College Absalon in Denmark.
‘In two weeks time the Prince and Princess will be King and Queen and they will have to get on with it’