Hello everyone! Julia, I love your avatar, very cool.
Everyone has made such wonderful points, I don't know that there is anything much to add, but I will anyway.
At the point Mary realized that Fred may be smitten with her she should have:
1) Visited a headhunter (professional job placement rep) with a complete resume entailing her education and job history, and ask: 1) What does my spotty work history say about me to prospective employers [and the media/Danes/ppl on this message board : )]? 2) How can I turn this impression around? 3) Can you find me a job, which fits my interest, education and work history with an international company (a corporation that has branches in Scandinavian countries)?
This way she would know what kind of impression that 5 year gap in work history would convey and she could get a job [in Australia] with a large international company that would allow her to transfer closer to Fred, when the relationship got serious, without looking like a kept woman or someone so desperate to be CP/Q they would give up everything.
2) Visit a professional image consultant and get some help with what colors/fabric/styles look right on her, tips on hair and makeup, proper posture, business etiquette, body language assessment, etc.
A good image consultant could have done a lot more for the same amount of money as the writing course and princess course she took AND would not have been as much of an embarassment when the world found out about them.
3) She should have cultivated a closer relationship with her family. These are the people who know you better than anyone else in the world and they know ALL your secrets, if you can't sustain a long close relationship with them you will have a harder time teaching it to your future children or even sustaining relationships outside your family. IMO
When her grandmother died, she should have been on the first flight back to Australia to be with family and attend the funeral. If Mary couldn't afford it and Fred refused to pay for it....she should have walked out on him. Who wants to be with someone who doesn't support the family relationship of the woman he loves.
4) She should have cultivated close friendships with respectable people outside Fred's circle. If your closest friends were first friends of your beau, they will repeat what you tell them to him and when/if the relationship ends he will get custody of them - leaving you without the shoulder of friends to cry on.
Friends outside the relationship will provide perspective and makes a person less emotionally needy.
Also, if you live with a man and hang out with only his friends, what do you talk about? He knows all the stories you could tell cause he was there too!! You will have much more to talk about and appear more worldly if you have places to go and people see, that aren't in his circle.
5) Learn to shop on-line or from catalogs for lingerie!!!!
Having the press report you went shopping for lingerie in every article on you makes you appear that much more of a tart and kept woman. Not the reputation a future CP/Q needs.
Get a personal shopper! Most large department stores have them and they usually don't cost anything. These people consult with you about your wardrobe needs, budget and can make suggestions as to what looks right on you. Additionally, they sometimes bring clothes to your house/palace for you to try and decide on, so you won't appear to be a shopaholic with a princes charge card.
I desperately think Mary would have done well with a second opinion on some things and a personal shopper knows if her/his advice and clothing selections make you look good then you will keep spending money at their store and that's what it's about for them, so they are not going to give you bad advice just to sell a garment. Most are very disreet too.
6) Go to church!!! I don't know that Fred is a defender of the faith, as royalty in other countries are, but I think Mary needs some spiritual grounding and moral rules to follow, which she apparently hasn't learned elsewhere. IMHO
7) Find a role model who already has the lifestyle and job you aspire to and try to emulate her personal style and morality/comportment. For Mary, I would suggest Princess Caroline and Princess Alexandra of Denmark.
I would also suggest Mary read
The Power of Style by Annette Tapert and Diana Edkins. This book profiles several women who were born of modest means and turned their life around by 'going to school on their betters', as the authors wrote in the profile of the Duchess of Windsor.
8) While Mary is buying books she should also purchase several about Denmarks history, religion, monarchy, language, etc., so she would know something about the country she wants so desperately to queen of and I think Fred, his mom and the Danes would find it endearing that she made the effort.
Also, she should take a subscription to an international paper and READ it from cover to cover every single day!! Buy some classics of our time, books on art, culture and so forth. This would make her a better conversationalist in any sitiation she finds herself and appear more worldly.
9) Spend some time volunteering at a charity you deem worthwile. This will help give you some perspective and the appearance of someone who thinks of others and not just themselves and their own pitiful agenda.
10) Finally, Mary should spend some time alone with Mary trying to figure out who she is and what she really wants in life. Nothing is sexy and more appealing than a woman or man, for that metter, who knows themselves inside and out.
Oh my, I just realized I have written another novel, sorry folks.
Kathy :x
I think that Mary has that "Popeye" look Lorissa because for the most part she is faking it. She's acting and the camera has unfortunately caught her in the "act" a few times.
I am nominating mary for a oscar next year for best actress in the Royal soap opera. Her actions is like one of those business scams you hear about on the news, ripping people off with fakky products and lots of crap. 
...Margrethe will wonder where such sterling advice came from and immediately decide to include your points of etiquette in the royal dossier on the correct behavior for eligible young ladies! 
