Christening of Princess Athena: May 20, 2012

[carlota]

marie is the daughter of separated parents herself. she spoke long about how this marked her. she obviously understands N+F's position. i've seen this couple throughout and in no occasion i have seen marie having a bad or even ignoring behaviour towards joachim's kids. they are clearly a family.

i think marie has shown several times how close she is with felix and nikolai. she has been so before the wedding and continues after:

holding hands in greenland:
http://static1.purepeople.com/artic...nce-joachim-et-la-princesse-marie-637x0-2.jpg
marie and nikolai in the balcony:
http://www.billedbladet.dk/Kongelig...er/Kongelige/2009/Stedmor Marie/hj524135.ashx
marie and the boys skiing:
http://svenskdam.se/files/2010/01/MarieNikolaiFelix-250x152.jpg
skiing together prior to the wedding:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/lotte52/Joachim/08/danish-royals-3a.jpg

i don't know why people tend to invent their own stories. fair enough, we all grew up with the story about the mean stepmother, but i really don't think this is the case. why would joachim have married marie if there was already a problem between her and the kids prior to the wedding? they have enough pressure on them already.

 

[ghost_night554]

Nowhere I can find yet, but it should be up on youtube soon enough. DRFGARDEN usually gets them up quick enough.

Thanks for that Lumutqueen, I'll keep an eye out on their youtube account.

 

[Meraude]

Oh, I have just seen footage of the ceremony and I completely agree with you. I was originally referring to Marie and Joachim posing for pictures with their own children but I didn't realise that Felix and Nikolai had been relegated to the pews during the service. Joachim has banged on since both Henrik and Athena were born about how much his elder children love their little brother and sister. To then have Henrik sitting by the font and not the other two brothers is hypocritical to say the least. Children pick up on everything and Felix and Nikolai must have been wondering why they were not up there with Henrik. What a totally rotten and insensitive thing to have done. What was their father thinking?!!!! And as far as the "no room in the car" for the elder boys goes they could have followed in another car and still walked in together.

We don't know whether Nikolai and Felix wanted to sit with Joachim and Marie or not. It they didn't want that (perhaps not wanting their friends tease them for being in tv), do you mean that they should have been forced against their wishes to sit in the front just to show what a happy family they are??

 

[NGalitzine]

Maybe some of you should get a petition together to nominate Joachim & Marie as worst Danish Parents of the Year for not having their 2 oldest sons with then in the car and sitting with them during the christening ceremony. I am sure I have never seen a worse case of child neglect, verging on abuse, in my life. Nikolai and Felix were probably left psychologically scarred. Surely these 2 should never be allowed to be around their children without your supervision.

 

[sophie25]

marie is the daughter of separated parents herself. she spoke long about how this marked her. she obviously understands N+F's position. i've seen this couple throughout and in no occasion i have seen marie having a bad or even ignoring behaviour towards joachim's kids. they are clearly a family.

i think marie has shown several times how close she is with felix and nikolai. she has been so before the wedding and continues after:

holding hands in greenland:
http://static1.purepeople.com/artic...nce-joachim-et-la-princesse-marie-637x0-2.jpg
marie and nikolai in the balcony:
http://www.billedbladet.dk/Kongelig...er/Kongelige/2009/Stedmor Marie/hj524135.ashx
marie and the boys skiing:
http://svenskdam.se/files/2010/01/MarieNikolaiFelix-250x152.jpg
skiing together prior to the wedding:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/lotte52/Joachim/08/danish-royals-3a.jpg

i don't know why people tend to invent their own stories. fair enough, we all grew up with the story about the mean stepmother, but i really don't think this is the case. why would joachim have married marie if there was already a problem between her and the kids prior to the wedding? they have enough pressure on them already.

As I said in a previous quote I am sure Marie is very fond on the elder boys. My point is that children feel things deeply and it will not have been lost on Felix and Nikolai that they were not sitting by the font today. If Joachim really wants them to embrace Henrik and Athena as their brother and sister then Henrik should not have been presented today as being more her brother than they are. Biologically of course he is and that will never change but having them sit seperatley will only foster a "them and us" mentality among the children. IMO it was a stupid, hurtful and totally unnecessary thing to have done

We don't know whether Nikolai and Felix wanted to sit with Joachim and Marie or not. It they didn't want that (perhaps not wanting their friends tease them for being in tv), do you mean that they should have been forced against their wishes to sit in the front just to show what a happy family they are??

If they worried about being on TV I suppose they wouldn't go on to the palace balcony either-which they do-every year.

 

[Muhler]

Oh, I have just seen footage of the ceremony and I completely agree with you. I was originally referring to Marie and Joachim posing for pictures with their own children but I didn't realise that Felix and Nikolai had been relegated to the pews during the service. Joachim has banged on since both Henrik and Athena were born about how much his elder children love their little brother and sister. To then have Henrik sitting by the font and not the other two brothers is hypocritical to say the least. Children pick up on everything and Felix and Nikolai must have been wondering why they were not up there with Henrik. What a totally rotten and insensitive thing to have done. What was their father thinking?!!!!

That's a very harsh judgement.

Is there anything wrong with accompanying and sitting with your grandparents? Especially if you drive in the same car.
If Nikolai and Felix were to sit next to the font, the only place for them to sit were behind M&J, Henrik is after all so little that it would be natural that he stayed up front.
Here Nikolai and Felix sat with the adults and had a very fine view of what was going on, also during the boring bit where the priest talked a lot.

I watched them on the way out. Nikolai rushed up to M&J with a big smile on his face then he grabbed bette Henrik's hand spontanously. Hardly something a child would do, if he felt a younger halfbrother was preferred by his father and bonus mother.
Felix on the other hand went to Marie, who put her arm around him. Hardly something a child would do, if he felt his bonus mother didn't like him that much.
Nikolai and Felix didn't walk out the church with J&M because they were to ride with their grandparents - and it might still be raining outside.

Try turn the situation around before passing judgement.

Oddly enough in none of the Danish articles I have glanced thorugh so far has there been any mentioning that it was inappropriate for Nikolai and Felix to follow their grandparents.
Had Nikolai and Felix left their grandparents you could just as well argue that they were being snubbed by their grandparents.

 

[Artemisia]

Joachim, Alexandra, Marie and Martin have all proved that when it comes to Nikolai and Felix, all four do what's best for the children.
I strongly doubt hat the decision for the elder boys to sit separately had anything to do with "separating" them from the rest of the family. Marie's interactions with the boys have always been warm and genuine; it's clear they love their step-mother and younger siblings, are happy, content kids. I'm sure that's what all 4 adults in their lives want for them.

 

[sophie25]

The only other Athena I have heard of is Athina Onassis but then she is of Greek heritage so the name makes sense for her-nice name though.

 

[camelot23ca]

Athena. Another royal baby name I look forward to having grow on me. The baby herself is sweet, though. It's funny, in some pictures she looks like a nice mix between her parents but in a lot of other photos she looks like she could/should be one of Frederik and Mary's babies.

I thought everyone looked nice today. Nikolai is looking very grown up lately! All three of the older boys looked very dapper in their suits and little Isabella was charming and very pretty.

I didn't put much meaning in Nikolai and Felix being separate at the christening. I think it had more to do with them being much older than Joachim and Marie's children - Frederik and Mary's eldest two kids are often paired off and separated from the twins and it's not seen as any sort of problem. I realize there are additional dynamics at play when you're talking about a blended family, but I didn't get the sense that anyone in the family, (most importantly Nikolai and Felix), minded how things were arranged.

 

[Meraude]

If they worried about being on TV I suppose they wouldn't go on to the palace balcony either-which they do-every year.

It's quite different being perhaps ten minutes on a balcony far away from the cameras and to sit in the front row for almost an hour while the camera will catch every move they make and every facial expression and showed on a big screen for anyone to see and comment. Now they were present and even if they were filmed there was not the same pressure on them as if they were in the front. Little Henik is not yet aware of the camera and felt free to move around and do whatever he wanted, I would think the two elder are far more aware of what kind of pictures will show up in the papers.

 

[christinacg]

I love the name Athena! I think the entire name is beautiful and flows quite nicely.

 

[crm2317]

I don't think it's a huge deal that they sat seperately or arrived seperately. However what harm could be done by walking in and out as a family. At the pew the two older boys could have slipped in while Marie and Joachim went to the font. And they could have waited on the boys while leaving instead of them half walking/half jogging to catch up! It would have been nice to see them arrive in the church as a family.

 

[jadwiga]

The only other Athena I have heard of is Athina Onassis but then she is of Greek heritage so the name makes sense for her-nice name though.

The name itself is very beautiful but as a european royal name....even worse than Estelle! No offense

 

[sophie25]

It's quite different being perhaps ten minutes on a balcony far away from the cameras and to sit in the front row for almost an hour while the camera will catch every move they make and every facial expression and showed on a big screen for anyone to see and comment. Now they were present and even if they were filmed there was not the same pressure on them as if they were in the front. Little Henik is not yet aware of the camera and felt free to move around and do whatever he wanted, I would think the two elder are far more aware of what kind of pictures will show up in the papers.

Assuming your thoery is right and the elder boys are camara shy why couldn't they still have arrived and left as a family? There is such a thing as 2 cars to carry everyone. Anyway, when all is said and done I don't think things were done well today and that is my opinion which I am going to leave at that.

 

[IloveCP]

I love all her names! Athena is a very beautiful name. I love that they gave her a french version of Margrethe's name!

 

[helenbeee]

They Have Just Been In London For a Dinner With Queen Elizabeth II And Other Royals For Her Diamond Jubilee

Does anyone have a link for the christening to watch it online????

poor things but its so lovely they are not only there but supporting the family taking care of Felix and Nikolai. They are ver loving grandparents and have no problems showing it in public which is always lovely to see I think.

 

[Thena]

Just weighing in again on the choice of "Athena" as a name for the young princess:

I'm not Greek. I'm actually of South Asian descent, born and raised in the Midwestern United States. Yet I ended up adopting the nickname Thena in high school because I loved the myths about Athena. She was a strong warrior who fought alongside the Greeks in the Iliad. She aided Odysseus in the Odyssey. In the Oresteia, Athena reveals that she is the only one of the Olympic gods who has access to Zeus' thunderbolts and she can protect Orestes when Apollo couldn't.

So I see nothing wrong with Joachim and Marie choosing such a powerful name for their daughter, even if they have no connection to Greece. I've actually spotted images of Athena in artwork all over Europe, including a statuette of her and other gods decorating the roof of Christian VIII's palace at Amalienborg.

 

[helenbeee]

Oh dear, I can't believe the anglo-saxon smugness presented here... Are you seriously saying that English-speaking people are the majority in the world and because of that all places should use English names? Following your logic, Athens should be called 雅典 (Yǎdiǎn)! In my understanding Athens is Αθήνα to Greeks, roughly Athina.

P.S. Good luck trying to find 'Florence' on an Italian language map of Italy then...

In all honesty who really cares her name is Athena it is a name for a person and obviously to many people is also a name for a Greek city.
What we think doesnt really matter I had a friend at school called Athena she was named after the goddess of wisdom not the city my name is Helen also Greek but I have no family or genetic connection to Greece.
Its a name, they chose it and Princess Athena (Atina) is pretty cool and Im sure the rest of the family are happy with it also.

Are there any other Princess Athena's in European history if not then she is the first which is pretty special. There is a cruise ship called the princess athena heeheehee!

On the step family issue it is such a difficult thing to manage I watched my brother cope with being the father of 2 different families and the interaction of siblings an ex's. All I can say is from what Ive experienced is that everyone tries their best to cope with their own emotions for the benefit of the children. Their happiness and wellbeing is first priority this doesnt mean there arent insecurities or jealousy or regrets that erupt on the surface but I think Marie and Joachim and Alexandra handle the situation as best they can with all the children's welfare in mind including Henrik and now Athena. Those boys are well loved and are very safe in the knowledge of it. Marie has a baby and Henrik to cope with it was hard for her today she looked fidgety and baby was being a bit of a handful so to start analyzing her step parenting skills on the little we saw would be a bit unfair I think.

The name itself is very beautiful but as a european royal name....even worse than Estelle! No offense

I dont find princess estelle easy to say but when she makes queen queen estelle sounds real nice hopefully Ill still be around when that happens.

 

[imojeen]

It's quite different being perhaps ten minutes on a balcony far away from the cameras and to sit in the front row for almost an hour while the camera will catch every move they make and every facial expression and showed on a big screen for anyone to see and comment. Now they were present and even if they were filmed there was not the same pressure on them as if they were in the front. Little Henik is not yet aware of the camera and felt free to move around and do whatever he wanted, I would think the two elder are far more aware of what kind of pictures will show up in the papers.

Thanks God, there are a few people who thinks like me.

The boys caught up J and M while entering church, that means they are not escaping from cameras and they don't think it is embrassing. While sitting with grandparents, they are also in TV. There is no difference. So, it wasn't a problem for the boys.
I don't say that Marie is bad step-mother. However it was wrong to sit seperately, they could come with two cars. As an adult you can understand Marie likes the boys and she is a good stepmother but Felix is 10 and Nikolai is 13, they couldn't understand this, they could think and feel like they are seperated.
I am not so older than Nikolai, if he thinks that walking with J and M and being in TV are embrrassing. Believe me he would think that going there and walking with grandparents holding his hand is more embrassing for a 13 year old boy. Plz try to think like a 10 year old boy.

p.s: I know F is 9 and N is 12, they will turn 10 and 13 in a few months.

 

[Meraude]

And they could have waited on the boys while leaving instead of them half walking/half jogging to catch up! It would have been nice to see them arrive in the church as a family.

I don't think it was planned that the boys would leave with Joachim and Marie, to me it looked as there was someone going to the royal pew and coaxing the boys to leave with them, and that Joachim and Marie was pleased when the boys came.

 

[helenbeee]

Thanks God, there are a few people who thinks like me.

The boys caught up J and M while entering church, that means they are not escaping from cameras and they don't think it is embrassing. While sitting with grandparents, they are also in TV. There is no difference. So, it wasn't a problem for the boys.
I don't say that Marie is bad step-mother. However it was wrong to sit seperately, they could come with two cars. As an adult you can understand Marie likes the boys and she is a good stepmother but Felix is 10 and Nikolai is 13, they couldn't understand this, they could think and feel like they are seperated.
I am not so older than Nikolai, if he thinks that walking with J and M and being in TV are embrrassing. Believe me he would think that going there and walking with grandparents holding his hand is more embrassing for a 13 year old boy. Plz try to think like a 10 year old boy.

p.s: I know F is 9 and N is 12, they will turn 10 and 13 in a few months.

Its not wrong that they sit separately they sat with the queen and it was probably at her request and may have been for other reasons such as Henrik getting over excited with his brothers there or not enough room or it was just easier to organise leaving the house to have fewer people to worry about. It doesnt really matter we only saw an hour of the whole day. At the end of the day Im pretty sure they werent troubled by it and so shouldnt you.

 

[Emmily]

Yes, but it seems like that now she´s got her own two babies, then she´s forgetting about Nikolai and Felix (unless there are cameras near). Just my opinion.

I doubt that very much Didn't the boys sit with their grandparents when Henrik was baptized?

 

[imojeen]

In Norwegian forums, there are good comments about how Haakon and other member of the family see Marius is a part of the family. They don't seperate Marius.

Now about Joachim and Marie, I am telling my criticization about boys in the christening. That's all. I have never said that Marie is a bad stepmother. Let's stop this discussion here. I am tired =) We have discussed it enough.

As for the baby girl's name, I am telling this for people who dont like the name, when you search baby-names sites you will see, Athena is a nice name, most people like it.
Maybe you don't think it isn't a royal name but it so much beautiful than a name Margrethe(I mean as a first name) for a new born girl. She is in 10th in line of the throne so she doesn't need these old fashioned royal names. Athena is such a lovely modern and classy name for a young princess to grow up.

As for Estelle, she will be queen oneday. They couldn't named her like (Hollywood children) Apple, Peaches or Pilot Inspector, Seven.... hahhahha =D

 

[IloveCP]

I love how Nikolai held hands with Grandfather Henrik! He is 12 and is not ashamed of holding hands with his grandfather!

 

[ashelen]

I like Marie and Mary they look fab, although the bck of the dress of Mary is a little too much? she must be very thin touse all that in her back! I love Isabella, she use th same dress that in the footoshot of last summer, just i dont like the little the colour of theflower i thought should to had been white or blue like the dress but she looksadorable anyway! poity not to see a better photo of her heair style!!!!! she looks so charming!!!

 

[mitchell]

dr video 1hr
DR NU
all the best mitchell

 

[Frelinghighness]

I was quite surprised at the name also! I missed it live but it all looked beautiful and the guest list seemed very long!
Marie and family all looked beautiful, the baby is adorable.
I just don't understand why Christian is never put in a tie, even little Henrik was wearing one. No tie for christian at the twins' christening or for the most formal event of the Jubilee.

 

[prisscess of may]

After viewing the video i can see some point about the famillies not be put together at the event, but this is about athena let move forward and just wish the cutie baby well with life and happiness. p.s the name athena is o.k just like my sister name her son aries the God of war when i ask her why she told me ''it her choice so you have to respect it'' so we all have to do the same for them. jmo

 

[Kaatje]

Athena is my puppy's name. I absolutely love it for a baby human, too! What a beautiful choice her parents made.

 

[Lady Arlette]

I so agree Catharina! Everyone is debating something with exactly zero knowledge--the whys and the wherefores of Nikolai and Felix being with their grandparents and not their father and stepmother. Since everyone seemed very happy on this joyous occasion I think we should stop speculating. As for the name of the new little princess--Marie and Joachim have the right to choose a name they like for their daughter! People may not like the name they chose but the only opinions that matter belong to Marie and Joachim. We should all be happy the new baby is healthy, happy and much loved.