Denmark is a small country with 5 million habitants.
The storys in the press are coherent with what different people has been telling me.
Joachim was chasing young girls at the age of 16 and 17.
He didn't rape them with at shotgun to their head. I agree with that.
His chasing after girls 16 and 17 of age went on in about 1,5 year.
Joachim also was emailing and calling Marie after he met her at a hunting party just 2 month after the birth of his youngest son Felix.
And don't drag Alexandra into this. She was not running around touching young girls in the cruch.
You sure seem to know a lot of details. - The problem is that none of it is verifiable. So you are basically not adding anything that wasn't written in the articles, which again were based on second-hand information.
However, you are still very busy pointing your finger at a man having a personal crisis. As far as I'm aware Joachim was not in the habit of embarrassing himself neither before nor after the separation and divorce.
Eventhough you do not permit me to mention Alexandra in this connection, I will nevertheless point out that she was going through a crisis as well and less than flattering articles about her also surfaced in that period.
As for when and how Joachim met Marie the first time.
Here is a translation of part of an interview from my archive. I've underlined the bit about their first meeting:
Billed Bladet #41, 2007-10-12.
Kærligheden var så stærk – The love was so strong. (Part 1. Part 2 in week #42).
In this unique and informal interview the couple invites inside to a rare visit at the chateau and while they tell about their meeting, falling in love and dreams for the future, Marie Cavallier also tells about her past, her family life and her interests in her free time.
It was during the couple’s vacation in France this summer at the wine-chateau Cayx, that Prince Joachim’s uncle. Etienne de Montpezat had the opportunity to talk to the couple in love and from that this rare and honest conversation has emerged, where Prince Joachim lets his fiancée speak. Because it is she, whom the Danes are going to know better.
Just at the press conference after the engagement the couple looks back at their first meeting, that took place during a hunt in Denmark in the Autumn of 2002.
- “I had been told that Prince Joachim was at the hunt. I thought it was fun to meet him and we did talk with each other during the hunt and had a fun time. But that was it”, tells Marie Cavallier.
- “No, and I didn’t think either that it could develop. It was more coincidences and meeting through friends that resulted that we occasionally came into contact with each other about every six months. Later, also by coincidence Marie and I both discovered that we were both single at the same time, and sometimes during 2005 I contacted her during a visit to Paris. And when we met again, I think we both knew that our friendship was destined to grow into something much larger”, tells Prince Joachim.
- “Nevertheless I cannot adhere to those who speak of love at first sight. But I was in the moment struck by his spontaneity, his openness and his frank and natural way of behaving, and we quickly realised that a certain togetherness grew between us. It felt like we were two lost souls on the same wavelength who had found each other”, tells Marie and continues:
- “That togetherness which we felt in each other has in time become more and more passionate. And what I very much noticed in Joachim, in view of who he is and his background, is his natural way of behaving. He is so straightforward and treats everyone in the same way. It’s not superficious manners but a deep and inborn kindness. I actually think it was the combination of Joachim’s many qualities and his way of being, which I could see/sense each time we met, which was genuine and not façade, which made me fall for him”, says Marie Cavallier and acknowledge that seduction is also based on charm and physical attraction.
- “Of course. But you just have to look at Joachim to understand him. It’s true, he is very gorgeous/lovely…. And you don’t have to spend much time with him to know that he is also intelligent. He is at the same time a good person and that’s rare. He radiates kindness, if I may put it like that. A kindness you sense just by looking at him. It shines through that he is a completely sincere and kind person. I have never heard him say anything bad about another person and I’ve never heard anyone utter a singe bad word about him”, says Marie Cavallier, who does not think her fiancée has changed as she has gotten to know him.
- “That’s actually something that has surprised me. I thought it might be because I was in love and that some things would change when I opened my eyes and got my feet back on the ground. But that has never happened. I’ve never seen him do anything wrong and he is the same today as three years ago. If he genuinely was not like that I would know. My family and my friends and everybody else have also been surprised. It’s very rare that someone like him does not become blasé and condescending towards people and does not become demanding. On the contrary he is a man who never complains and who is always happy”, says Marie Cavallier and sound almost as she has met a true prince charming.
- “Yes, he does exist. I’ve found him. Lovely, friendly, open and frank. Who can ask for more? And on top of that he is simply an incredible father. And when he on top of that loves me so much, well, I’ve honestly never met anyone like him, “says an in love Marie Cavallier.
When Prince Joachim and Marie Cavallier last week got officially engaged the love-struck couple certainly didn’t look like someone who had problems during their relationship.
Still their love has not completely been without complications. But they have with mutual help and stubbornness worked their way through the problems and found a love for each other, which they themselves have difficulties describing with words.
- “Yes, it’s true that we were apart for some time. I had moments of doubts and considerations about what choices to make. It wasn’t a question about my feelings and love for him. But I was uncertain about the life I was heading towards, because it’s so different from what I could even dream about. I’m a very independent person and the “official” side of Prince Joachim scared me, I cannot deny that. So I tried to get out and end our relationship…. But then I realised that it was stupid. I would never meet someone like him again. You cannot let a chance like that get away… I love him and I’m confident that, that love will help me accept everything that comes with that (being married to a prince). Or at least that love will make things easier”, says Marie Cavallier who is now for the first time interrupted by her fiancée.
- “It’s strange, because during the period we were forced apart and Marie told me that she didn’t believe she could handle living a life like that with me, I was still full of optimism. I trusted our love for each other the whole time. I think it’s one of my good qualities that I always look at the bright side, when things happen.
- “And the most important thing for me when I met Marie, was that I sensed that our friendship moved in a completely different direction. Here I had something new to look for and test and I discovered things I’ve never before experienced”, says Joachim and gladly elaborates:
- “Of course I’ve been spoiled in my life, but pretty early on I’ve learned to put things into the right perspective and differentiate and navigate beyond the smiles and thorns of the roses. But with Marie I knew I had found my new future, a future which is almost predestined for me.
And that our love should be so easy/trouble free is certainly not a matter of course. I’ve never been brought up to believe that everything is just sorted when you snap your fingers. On the contrary. But I think that I by nature is very patient. My background as farmer has also helped in strengthening that trait.
And finally but not least she has also charmed my children and has build up the most natural way of being with them. That’s a unique chance, perhaps what my happiness depends on, because I don’t think I could be really happy if it didn’t work between them”.
- “I felt the exact same way. Perhaps because I went through the same things when I was a child. I always knew it was up to me to make an effort. All I do is to love the boy and give them love. If they accept it, so much the better and I will do my best for that to happen. I think I was fortunate to enter their life at the right moment. It would probably have been more difficult later on. It’s not my impression, you see, that the boys feel like victims after the divorce or that they cannot handle the situation. That’s naturally not because of me, it’s thanks to Joachim and their mother”. Says Marie Cavallier.