14. May 2020
The other side of the picture.
Sixteen years ago, the Crown Prince got his Australian Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, but the road to today has not been easy, and not at all for the then young Mary who totally unprepared and unprotected was hunted around in Australia's streets by a relentless and aggressive press, and who was lonely during the pit stop in Paris, before she was was smuggled into Denmark via dark roads up through Germany and Jutland. One of the Crown Prince couple's closest friends, Ellen Hillingsøe tells in the portrait book of the Crown Prince 'Under the Beam' that besides a obvious strong love Frederiks and Marys relationship also succeeded because Mary managed to hold on when the period was most inhumane for her.
It is only in recent years the Crown Prince couple has opened up about how difficult the time up to the wedding was for them and the then completely unprotected and unprepared Mary Donaldson had to incur 24 hours of day protection from one day to another, and thus lost of all her personal freedom.
Here comes the story of the Crown Princess:
The year is 2000 and here the 28 years old Mary Elizabeth Donaldson's friends tries the best they can to lure Mary with them to a night out one evening at the Sydney Olympics, but Mary is tired and she has to go to work the next day. The friends leave, but not long after Mary regrets her choice and jumps into her clothes and walks down to the bar to meet up with her friends. Cause how often is the Olympic Games in your town?
Sydney bubbles during the Olympic Games and the city is packed with so many people, athletes and also royalty. At the Slip Inn bar Mary Elizabeth Donaldson meets her friends who have fallen in talk with foreign guests. Among them is Denmark's Crown Prince Frederik. Crown Prince Frederik has since told that he was blinded by Mary and couldn't get his eyes from her. Her smile, her dark eyes, her calm being, her relatively deep voice and her way of moving.
- The introduction was a little secretive, but very beautiful. To visualize it, it was almost like a summer landscape in moonlight.
- It was all about Mary that I was drawn to.
To me there was just something inexplicably attractive about her. First of all a very calm being, her eyes and then the way she moved, her dark voice which was incredibly fascinating. And then we talked tremendously good together. After all it wasn't just love, but also much the feeling of having met a soul mate. What exactly is hard to say when I love my wife as I do, the Crown Prince tells in the portrait book 'Under the Beam' from 2018.
They fell in talk, the two of them. Talked all the evening and all night. Forgot about their friends. They followed each other to a new bar before sharing a taxi home late at night.
Crown Prince Frederik had completely swept the feet off under Mary, this loving, charming, intelligent man who spoke multiple languages, shared the same casual humor as herself, and then he looked very handsome too.
- I was spellbound. He really swept me off my feet this handsome man, who also seemed beautiful inside - positive and humorous, experienced and traveled. It was also very appealing, I thought, that he besides a good English also spoke French. For fun, I've always said to myself that I would love to find the man who could both dance, ride a horse, speak several languages, be a good swimmer and wear sensible shoes. Although Frederik is not the born dancer, he really likes to dance and all the other things were there in plenty of ways. He had the whole package ... yes, he was a good package!, Crown Princess Mary tells in the portrait book about the Crown Prince.
When the taxi reached Mary's home, Crown Prince Frederik gave her a kiss on the cheek and asked for her number.
- I was home at three or four at night. Frederik dropped me off in a taxi and before it disappeared around the corner he asked for my phone number. I gave it to him and got a little goodnight kiss on the cheek, Crown Princess Mary tells.
Crown Princess Mary tells she at the same time thought, 'Yeah well, I will never hear from him again, but I've had a fantastic evening.'
But Mary decided to allow herself to indulge into the adventure as long as it lasted. She wanted to enjoy the rest of the Olympic Games and Frederik's presence, and to concentrate on the present and displace all the sensible thoughts she is so good to get.
The next day Mary was hoping and waiting for him to call but she didn't dare to hope too much. But he called. Repeatedly. As Crown Prince Frederik has said: "We talked so well together, as soulmates, we talked and talked and have never stopped since."
We all know the rest of the story.
But there was also a dark side which the Crown Prince couple only rarely have told about.
A growing and strong love is blooming. Frederik and Mary are spellbound by each other, but thier love must last for several years with long distance, longing and long flights back and forth. They get one year together before the press discovers them. A year that meant everything for their relationship has Crown Prince Frederik since told. When the Crown Prince travels home Mary feels it like a heartache. She can't think, she can't concentrate, she misses him so it hurts.
One thing know Mary though is that she has met an unusual man whom she dearly misses as soon as he has left her.
That year she often listens to the song by Dido "Here with me", which is about the woman who wakes up in bed in the morning and discovers her beloved is gone and the emptiness and sadness grabs her.
John Donaldson has told that his daughter was constantly looking at her phone during that period and was beaming like a sun when the Crown Prince called. She realizes she has to choose whether to stay in her safe anonymous life or take the huge unknown jump - she knows there is no way back if she jumps. The love and longing to be together is too strong. The couple has succeeded in creating a bow of love across the earth that they decide to get carried away. It has to be the two of them.
The journey to today is long. Full of strong love, but also inhuman hard. A totally unprepared and unprotected Mary Donaldson is hunted by aggressive paparazzies in the streets as she drives to and from work and they camp out in front of her home and they look through her trash when she goes down with it. The paparazzies are relentless - and Mary is in chok and terrified, she locks herself into her home, rolls down the curtains and she shakes. Mary's sister Jane tells in the portrait book that Mary was so worried about her family during that time, would they also be exhibited and hunted?
The Crown Prince is in Denmark and he looks on powerless from the other side of the world. Unfortunately, Mary Elizabeth Donaldson way too quickly needs 24-hour protection and loses all her freedom out of the blue. The Crown Prince wraps an iron ring around her, he is hiding her for a while to Paris in a loving attempt to give Mary a rest, but Paris was not a good time for Mary. In Paris she was all by herself, she didn't knew anyone. She founds herself a job as teaching english at a school and she waits all week only for Crown Prince Frederik to come during the weekends.
Crown Princess Mary tells in the portrait book that she during that period became uncertain. Why did Frederik suddenly not want to appear in public with her anymore, why did he hide her everywhere, why did he let go of her hand when they were out? She thought: 'Frederik, are we two together or not?' It wasn't until later that Mary realized that Frederik just was doing everything he could to protect her. But how could an ordinary woman know that? Mary only really understood that later on when she really learned how intrusive the media is.
- We had a wonderful start together, but I could not yet allow myself to give everything of me. And that was the case right up until I moved to Copenhagen in the summer of 2002. I was so uncertain about how it all would go, and part of my doubts at the beginning was also because I couldn't really understand what Frederik saw in me. I mean he could get, you know, all women, and probably had a great selection to choose from. That's how I thought. So even though we had a wonderful time every time he came in the first year he also had to travel back home every time. Back to his world, and I to mine. But he always called back quickly after he left so I never got stuck in my doubts, Crown Princess Mary tells in the portrait book.
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