Denmark is set to have a new king, Frederik, after his mother, Queen Margrethe, announced that she is abdicating the throne on January 14, 2024, ending her 52-year reign.
Crown Prince Frederik André Henrik Christian, who is set to take over from his mother, was born on May 26, 1968, to Queen Margrethe and Prince Henrik in Copenhagen, Denmark, during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King Frederick IX.
He was educated privately at home and at Krebs School. He later joined Ecole des Roches, a boarding school in Normandy, France, before joining Aarhus University, where he earned a Master of Science degree in political science.
Growing up, Frederik resented his parents for neglecting him as they fulfilled their royal obligations. He sought consolation in fast cars and fast living, and he was considered a spoiled party prince in the early 1990s.
However, that view began to change after he graduated from Aarhus University in 1995, becoming the first Danish royal to complete a university education. His time at college included a stint at Harvard in the US, where he was enrolled under the pseudonym Frederik Henriksen.
After school, Frederik trained in the three branches of Denmark’s military and also served in the navy’s Frogmen Corps. He was one of only four of the 300 recruits to pass all of the tests in 1995.
In 2000, he met and fell in love with an Australian marketing consultant, Mary Donaldson, while attending the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. They married on May 14, 2004, at Copenhagen Cathedral. They have four children: Christian, Isabella, Vincent, and Josephine.
In recent years, Frederik and his wife have also taken up more royal duties, especially owing to the queen’s health.
Crown Prince Frederik, like Britain’s King Charles III, is known for his passion for the environment and has vowed to “guide the ship” of Denmark into the future.
