Danish king felt weight of the world on 18th birthday
DENMARK’S new king says his 18th birthday felt like “the end of the world” and has revealed he had mixed feelings for years about taking the throne.
King Frederik X, 55, made the revelations in a book published just three days after his coronation ceremony on Jan 14.
The 112-page book was titled Kongeord, which means “The King’s Word”, and was written in secret based on conversations he had with biographer Jens Andersen at the Amalienborg palace while he was crown prince.
In it, the king describes his reluctance towards one day becoming the monarch as a shy child. “I just wanted to be like every other boy my age, and for many years calling myself ‘king’ was not something I wanted at all,” he said.
“I remember my 18th birthday as something close to the end of the world. It was the feeling that now everything that was fun and exciting was coming to an end. Fortunately, it didn’t.”
King Frederik, who was known as the “party prince” in his youth because of his love of fast cars and rock concerts, succeeded to the throne after the surprise abdication of his mother, Queen Margrethe II.
A limited run of the book sold out hours after its publication, with 25 copies per minute being sold in the hours following its publication. Book publishers predicted it could be one of the best-selling books of 2024.
King Frederik also used his memoir to praise his wife, Australian-born Queen Mary, whom he met in a Sydney pub during the 2002 Olympics.
“Mary is my partner and my wingman, to use a pilot expression, and we have a super dynamic,” he said.
“It benefits us enormously when we prepare everything from church visits and award ceremonies to New Year’s tables and state visits.”
The Danish king admitted his father was “very patriarchal” and claimed he tried to pass those characteristics to him and his brother.
He added: “I have learned a lot from having a wife who, from time to time, reminds me that of course I am not always right, and that my words are not automatically believed, just because I am a man in the house.”
The king, who was criticised for not mentioning God in his coronation speech, goes on in the book to praise the role of Christianity in bringing people in Denmark together.
“The strength of faith does not lie in whether God is mentioned in a King’s Word, but in that we as people, as a nation, feel connected to each other through our Christian faith,” the king explained.