Part two:
Q: How do you view your future role as regent couple? The demands expected of you are different than those, when your mother became regent?
The Crown Prince:
Yes, absolutely. The demands to the regent couple will constantly change. Every era has its own demands. My mother was only 32 and she was a woman, so back then there were also very big demands made of her, when she woke up one morning and was Queen. You may say that we benefit from the tradition and that we have been able to observe the impressive way my parents – and your parents-in-law, Mary – fill out their role. We observe and absorb as much as we are able to.
Q: But the CP couple belongs to a new generation and you live different from your parents. What will be your passion/particular interest as a regent couple?
The Crown Princess:
- “As Frederik is saying, we are right now trying to figure out where our paths shall go and then we absorb as much as we can. But we cannot prepare ourselves 100 %. We cannot move/teleport ourselves into the future and see how it will be. We will, just as the Queen and the Prince Consort, do it in our own personal way. As Regent Couple they reflect the time they live in and we will to, when we get there. We don’t now yet how things will look at that time. We ready ourselves, so that we are prepared to embark on our journey in the best possible way”.
The Crown Prince:
- “To dare be ourselves has turned out to be a plus for both of us. It may be that some people see it differently. I think I have come farther than I believed possible by being myself. Some may have thought that I was a bit too different, but here I have said to myself: - What you see is what you get.
The Crown Princess:
- “Otherwise it will be an unhappy life”.
The Crown Prince:
- “Yes, you can only smile of yourself. And fortunately it turned out that people in general like to see that you show a human face. Many even praise that you shed a tear”.
Q: That must be a healthy acknowledgment to reach with all the expectations that has always been on your shoulders as Crown Prince?
- “Yes, and I no longer see it as something embarrassing to show my feelings. I may have had ten fifteen tears ago and I do not demand that others must express themselves in the same manner. But that’s how we do it, because we to a large extent are ourselves”.
Q: How do you handle the balance between being royals and style-icons like other celebrities?
The Crown Princess:
- “We don’t consider ourselves style-icons. But we are of conscious of the fact that we must dress neatly and correctly for the events in which we part. I don’t think people would be thrilled if we showed up improperly dressed. We are very conscious about that we represent Denmark and that we do it in the correct manner. And it can really be frustrating if you are out to an event and there is more focus on your clothes than on what happened.
The dress is part of our uniform, but we are not to outshine the event itself – or look like a Christmas tree. So we of course have many considerations in regards to what we engage ourselves in. We think carefully. Other times it’s just: - I want to do that. – Every event we attend has a very strict schedule almost from minute to minute, but there must of course also be room for spontaneity”.
Q: Isn’t it a bit odd to go and wait for a job/position you have no idea about when to begin?
The Crown Prince:
- “No matter what new job you are facing there will always be some uncertainty. If you could see it all in at advance (6) you would be over-qualified. The challenge lies in the margin of unpredictability there will always be. Otherwise the job wouldn’t be experienced as an advancement. That’s the way I try to handle it and it has actually been something of a revelation for me when I began to view it in that way. You cannot prepare yourself for everything”.
The Crown Princess:
- “No, it’s just like having a baby. You can read and talk and absorb from all directions, but you cannot know how it will be in reality”.
The Crown Prince:
- “That’s how I felt when I left for Greenland in 2000. (7) Yes, you were physically capable. You trusted your psyche and were well prepared. We trained as much as we could and build most of our things ourselves and so on. However we could never enter a rostrum and say: - We will surely get through at such and such time. – In the case of Greenland it’s the moods of nature that decides whether you will get through at all. Physically you can be unfortunate and get injured then you have to quit before time. It’s the same thing in sports.
The more you train – that applies to our future too – and gain experience of life through practical experiences, the more you diminish the unforeseen things the job as monarch involves. To be well prepared is the most important thing and here experience of life comes in. That is what we will pass on to our little boy, so that he hopefully will be allowed to keep his curiosity and interest for the surroundings. That he himself will travel and live abroad, so that he will have an opportunity to get to know himself. The most important thing is to be able to rest within himself, to obtain a centre of gravity. And you get that through experience of life – And only through time”.
The Crown Princess:
- “We believe it is a very essential part of our work to carry on the traditions and history, which make the monarchy something unique and a rallying point for Denmark. Continuity is very important but there must also be room for development, so we will fill out the role in our personal way. That’s the way every regent couple has done it”.
Q: What thoughts are the CP couple doing in regards to the future of Prince Christian?
The Crown Prince:
- “I thought about that a lot, especially prior to his birth. - Jeez, do stay inside in your mother’s belly. You shouldn’t get out in the big, raging world”!
The Crown Princess:
- “Nooo… (8) We must ensure that he will be so well prepared that he can face all the challenges that will come. That he will become a happy boy and will get the chance to live a life like everybody else, but still with this difference… And that he can carry it with pride. He must be proud of who he is. There will naturally be times in his life where he may not want to be bothered with having the pressure of expectation on his shoulders. Here it will be our job to support him”.
The Crown Prince:
- “He surely must question things along the way. Why the reactions are as they are in regards to him. He will surely do that, and here we will be 100 % present. If you must put it briefly, it’s our hope that he shall live as an ordinary person in an extraordinary world. But there will surely be times where he will find it difficult to be different”.
The Crown Princess:
- “That’s how all children feel it. You would rather be like everybody else. You’d rather not stand out in any way. You want to belong to the community”.
Q: If the Crown Prince were to write a letter to himself as a young man, how would it read?
- “I would write that I was fortunate to be given a lot of freedom. Internally as well as externally. I really was allowed to develop myself and get my own experiences and that has been worth gold. I could not have bought that. It was cool that I got that freedom and those experiences. And I was allowed to keep my curiosity and challenge myself physically as well as mentally.
I the Frogman Corps for example, there were many times when you thought: - It wasn’t you who did that! – You would never have believed it, but you managed it in some mysterious way. By working with the issues and listening to your own thoughts you pulled through. When you faced some measurable demand that had to be honoured, otherwise it was just goodbye and thank you with a good conscious but downcast, right?
That gave a lot of insightfulness in yourself and courage. I became aware that you could actually set some extreme goals for yourself. And honour them. Physical well being gives a good mental balance, so yes, it has also been a help in regards to my future job as regent. It applies to all people that you get cheered up by physical exertion.
In my letter I would write that it’s important to get the freedom to experience. Without wanting to be aloof I will refer to a single sentence by Piet Hein: - Remember to love, while you dare. Remember to live, while you do. – You could say that to yourself, seen in the rear view mirror, because as a teenager you cannot overview your life, but you live much more intense and have a lot of emotions. So yes, you must not forget to love”.
Q: Does the Crown Princess to have an advise to yourself as teenager?
- I think that it is important that you learn a lot from the experiences you gain along the way. I believe you should live in the present and look ahead, even though I don’t always remember it. But I believe in it. I’m certain that I could give myself a lot of advise today with retrospective effect, but I don’t think I would have been able to receive it when I was a teenager or younger, because at that time I didn’t have the experience, I have today. I think I would say to myself: - Good luck on the journey”.
(1) Meaning that it was a really great experience! To be substituted.
(2) A part of the country to which she was very attached.
(3) An organisation dedicated to help mothers who have problems.
http://moedrehjaelpen.dk/
(4) I’m 90% sure she actually meant “velvilje” = sympathy and not “vilje” = here meaning willpower.
(5) Actually more than 20 billion DKK a year and growing.
(6) As in overview.
(7) The Sirius 2000 expedition.
(8) Thoughtful.