Count Ingolf turns 80 today, and while there are no official celebrations, nor private celebrations, his nieces will mark the day in some form or another, that is going to be a surprise. But Ingolf doesn't know what they have in mind.
QMII has today been to the 80th birthday of a very close friend, Birgitta Hillingsø, and as such is not visiting Ingolf on his estate in Jutland.
But publicly he has been given quite a bit of attention in the news. The coverage has been positive but also brutally honest as to one of the reasons Ingolf is not being celebrated as king today. The Knud family was simply widely considered too ugly and too awkward to be the primary royals.
Ingolf himself has been interviewed by BT, and he said among other things:
https://www.bt.dk/royale/kan-du-genkende-denne-kongelige-dreng-mandag-fylder-han-80-aar
He and his cousin Margrethe were actually close when they were children. But the change of the Constitution in 1953 changed that relationship.
"Yes, it did, because our acquaintanceship wasn't as close as it could have been."
He points out that after the change the children were treated differently.
It was as mentioned above no secret that the Knud branch of the family were not "that presentable" as a royal expert labelled it on the news this evening. In contrast to the very presentable and hugely popular Frederik IX side of the family, and Ingolf felt that:
"I have also always been mocked and bullied, but I have gotten used to it."
QMII remarks in the recent portrait of Frederik IX that Prince Knud wasn't happy about the change in 1953.
Q: Did You also notice that it was hard for Your father that the Law of Succession was changed?
Ingolf: "I did, yes. But well, that was the terms. We didn't speak about it, it was suppressed."
Ingolf himself was affected, even though he couldn't do much about it:
"One just had to put up with it."
Q: Was it something that was a part of Your life back as a thirteen year old?
I: "It did, but one shouldn't get stuck on trivialities."
The change meant that Ingolf took an agrarian education and bough his present estate in 1967. He developed an interest in farming as a boy. But ten years ago he gave up farming himself, so no his lands are rented out to other farmers. But stopping wasn't easy:
"It was something I had to get used to."
He is now married to his second wife, Countess Sussie of Rosenborg. She was originally a lawyer whom he met in connection with dealing with the inheritance after the death of his mother, Princess Caroline-Mathilde. At that time his first wife, Inge Terney, been dead a few years, from cancer. Ingolf and Sussie were married in 1998 and she is almost exactly ten years younger than him.
He is now the only surviving of three siblings, whom he miss a lot. They were very close and had been since childhood, because they had a very strict childhood. With little show of affection from their parents.
His wife turns 70 this Thursday but they won't mark their birthdays until summer, where they will go on holiday to an undisclosed place.
Ingolf is pretty happy about having made it to 80. considering that is suffering from KOL, is a recovering alcoholic (more on that later) and was committed for an extended period for pneumonia last year.
Q: Do You ever wonder, how Your life would have been, had You become king?
I: "I can never answer that."
But he and his wife will, in contrast to what had been rumored, be laid to rest at Roskilde Cathedral along with other members of the DRF.
https://www.bt.dk/kendte/grev-ingolf-tre-maaneder-mere-og-jeg-var-doed-af-druk
Ingolf is a recovering alcoholic and almost died from his habit in fact.
He was told by his doctor in September 1985 that he he didn't kick his habit he wouldn't make it past Christmas.
Until then he had pretty much been perpetually tipsy.
"Yes, and it's terribly to admit. After eight weeks being sober I recall thinking: Good heavens. Is being sober like that? I haven't tried that for many years."
He went on antabus for two years and went public about his alcoholism as well, and that was a help in the sense that people made sure not to serve alcohol for him, until then he would down almost anything, except whiskey. He never liked whiskey.
https://www.bt.dk/royale/hjaelp-b.t.-er-grev-ingolf-indehaver-af-denne-danmarksrekord
Ingolf may be the holder of a DK record in a living person having no less than ten first names! - Just as his siblings, but they are sort of dead and don't count in this context.
His full name is: Ingolf Christian Frederik Knud Harald Gorm Gustav Viggo Valdemar Aage.
Having ten names was on insistence of their father, Prince Knud.
The paper has so far unsuccessful tired to find out if there are others in DK with ten or more first names. But none of the public registers count first names.
ADDED: A gallery:
https://www.bt.dk/kendte/grev-ingolf-saadan-kender-vi-ham
