Did Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II Abdicate to Save Her Son’s Marriage?

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Queen Margrethe II’s New Year's Eve announcement that she will abdicate the Danish throne has set off a round of wild speculation that the royal made the move to salvage the marriage of her eldest son, Crown Prince Frederik.

Certainly, it was a decision that few knew was coming: Witness the compilations of astonished reactions doing the rounds on X, which essentially amount to a lot of people screaming, “Nej!” in disbelief.

While many Danes believe that Margrethe, 83, an immensely popular and trusted figure, decided to call time on her 52-year reign precisely for the reasons she herself gave in her speech—she said that “now is the right time” and she has recently had major back surgery—others concede that the fresh start comes at what has seemed to be a rare moment of peril for the popular Danish royals.

For example, one Danish aristocrat who is acquainted with the royal family told The Daily Beast, “There had always been an assumption that she would carry on, if not forever, then certainly for many more years. So it was really a huge surprise when she announced she would stand down, and it is hard for people not to connect it with the recent trouble.”

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe to Abdicate After Tumultuous YearSURPRISE!

Tracy Connor

The “recent trouble,” of course, refers to rumors of an affair on the part of son Frederik, who will ascend to the throne in a low-key ceremony on January 14.

Frederik has been accused of cheating on his wife, the middle-class Australian-born former advertising executive, Princess Mary, whom he met in Sydney during the 2000 Olympic Games and married in 2004.

They are parents to four children, including Prince Christian, who recently turned 18 and is expected to succeed his father as king. Their marriage had for many years served as an exemplar of Danish family values, but all this changed in November when, as The Daily Beast reported, Frederik became the subject of gossip about an alleged affair with socialite and philanthropist Genoveva Casanova, after Spanish publication Lecturas published pictures of Frederik and Casanova out in Madrid, grabbing dinner and watching flamenco.

Casanova “flatly” denied the rumors, and while the Danish royals did not comment, their camp let it be known that they claimed the stories were false.

That might have been that, were it not for the fact that Mary then posted a few atypically ambiguous Instagrams. On one she said, “Sorry for not posting anything this month, I just needed time for myself and other things. I've just decided that I will post only the most important events of November and I then [sic] all the events of December.”

In another message, posted just before Christmas, she wrote, “So much has happened that it is impossible to put it all into words. We close 2023 soon and go on Christmas holidays with a gratitude for all that we humans can do when we do it together. We need each other if we are to succeed.”

She also was pictured looking tearful during a family holiday to Australia and New Zealand in December—but Frederik was firmly by her side for much of the trip, clearly telegraphing their unity. The same message was sent when they entered Aarhus Cathedral for a Christmas Eve church service.

For most Danes, who are generally fiercely patriotic and monarchist, there is an instinct to defend Queen Margrethe, whose legendary approachability and lack of grandeur is perhaps best illustrated by her former habit of bicycling around Copenhagen, which led to the family being nicknamed the “bicycling monarchy.“

One typical citizen, a teacher who asked not to be named, told The Daily Beast that it was simply about her “stepping down while well enough to be able to provide support for the handover” and being able “to give [Frederik] the crown while he was young enough to be useful, unlike the perception of King Charles.”

Of her son’s supposed affair, the teacher said, “That’s not her way. No one cares either way.”

That may well be the case among patriotic Danes, but in more global forums the suspicion that Margrethe was seeking to “save” Princess Mary and Frederik’s marriage is proving hard to dispel.

For example, one Danish expat told The Daily Beast, “Margrethe is an immensely practical woman, and my hope is that she decided to do this just because it is clearly a sensible way of doing it. But the very sudden nature of it is undeniably a bit odd.”

The British royal journalist Phil Dampier told the Daily Mail, “I think Margrethe may have worried that their marriage was in trouble and therefore she had to act. The Queen always thought Mary was a fantastic asset to the royal family and if she thought she might leave, it would have been a disaster. She will now hope that Frederik and Mary patch up any differences and work together as the new King and Queen.”

The bottom line is that as 2024 kicks off, the Danish Royal Family remains an enviable symbol of national identity and continuity in Denmark—and if there was discord at the heart of the family, it appears to have been skillfully resolved. And while Frederik may never be loved in quite the same way his mother was, giving him a fair run at the challenge of being king at the age of 55 should help him maintain the strong public support for the monarchy in Denmark that his mother has so skillfully fostered.