PHOTO: Princess Mary of Denmark. THE TELEGRAPH
The former estate agent was taught how to walk, shake hands and pose for the camera just weeks after meeting Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark.
Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, celebrates her 51st birthday on Sunday, February 5. The Countess of Monpezat has come a long way since her humble beginnings in Australia. It turns out that some of this change came about by her own doing. The former real estate agent went on a six-week-long journey of self-improvement before entering the Danish royal fold, spending thousands of dollars on a course.
Growing up, Denmark’s future Queen did not know a great deal about royalty but was “very aware” that Queen Elizabeth II was Australia’s head of state with the country being part of the Commonwealth, as she told the Financial Times in February last year.
A 28-year-old Mary Donaldson, as she was then, met the future Danish king at the popular pub called the Slip Inn in Sydney, Australia, when the prince was visiting for the 2000 Summer Olympics with other royals, where he enjoyed relative anonymity.
The pair reportedly discussed male chest hair, of which Frederik, then 32, supposedly has none, and bonded over horses and fitness. The fairytale romance, fit for a Hans Christian Andersen novel, had begun.
Little over a month later, she enrolled on a course in Australia called Starquest all about deportment, of which she described herself as an “absolute novice”.
The four-hour-a-week course, ran by life coach Teresa Page’s Starmakers agency which cost $1195, around $2,128.35 today [£1217.39], taught her how to walk, stand, shake hands, and bolster her confidence in front of the camera.
Princess Mary first met the Danish Prince in 2000 before enrolling herself on a deportment course (Image: Getty)
The couple were first pictured together in 2003 (Image: Getty)
According to a Syndey Morning Herald report, she had signed up because she felt as though “life was passing her by and she had to do something to shift it”.
Ms Page told the paper in November 2002: “Mary wanted to change and she wanted to change her life. She was definitely on a path of self-development… She’s charming, she’s intelligent, she’s articulate. She’s very switched on. She said she didn’t like the camera and didn’t have any good photos of herself.”
Over the duration of the course, Mary “transformed” and became more self-assured in front of the camera. In the meantime, Frederik would come to Australia to secretly meet with his new girlfriend.
On one occasion, Mary had apologised for missing a task because she had “family” visiting from abroad. Their long-distance relationship was later made public in November 2001 by the Danish magazine Billed Bladet.
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