Crown Princess Mary: Australia celebrates an unexpected queen

In the New Year when the world's last queen made a splash by abdicating live on television, history was also made in a country far, far away.

Queen Margaret II of Denmark said in her year-end speech: “I will hand over the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.”

Her decision to make way for the “next generation” of Danish royals has resonated around the world.

But it also gave birth to the first ever Australian-born queen, Frederick's wife, Princess Mary.

Less than a month after Queen Margaret took the throne in 1972 following the death of King Frederick IX, a girl named Mary Donaldson was born on the other side of the world in a small hospital in Hobart.

The daughter of a mathematics professor and executive assistant who immigrated to Australia from Scotland, Mary grew up in a middle-class suburban home with her siblings Jane, Patricia and John.

By most accounts, Mary was a natural leader by the time she left high school — with her former principal telling the ABC in 2003 that Mary was known as an “attractive, very outgoing, very nice” young woman.

“She was a popular student and stood out from the crowd,” longtime teacher Geoff Lockhart told the Sydney Morning Herald.

After graduating with a law and commerce degree from the University of Tasmania, she had a career in advertising and then luxury real estate.

But it was a chance encounter in a raucous Sydney watering hole during the 2000 Olympics that would ultimately turn her life upside down.

As the story goes, 28-year-old Mary went to the Slip Inn bar to meet some friends for a drink.

Among the group were several Europeans including Frederick, his brother Prince Joachim, his cousin Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark, Princess Märtha of Norway, and the current King of Spain, Felipe VI.

There were no security details or prying photographers, and the fact that Mary and her friends were among the royalty was never touched upon.

Instead, the more serious topic of discussion was whether men looked better with or without chest hair.

“Half an hour later, someone came up to me and said, 'Do you know who these people are?'” Mary told Australian comedian Andrew Denton in 2005, recalling the encounter.

She added: “I gave Frederick my phone number and he called me the next day, so you could say something. It wasn't fireworks in the sky or anything like that, but there was a feeling of excitement.”

They quickly established a long-distance relationship, and by 2002, Marie decided to move to Denmark where she began learning Danish and accepted a job at Microsoft.

When the couple tied the knot two years later in Copenhagen Cathedral on May 14, more than a million Australians woke up in the middle of the night to watch the ceremony live.

Back in Tasmania, students at Taruna High School – Mary's alma mater – donned Viking helmets and crowns to attend the festive royal dinner.

“The girl who charmed a nation,” was the front-page headline of the Copenhagen Post that day, along with a news poll that declared five out of six Danes were certain she would one day become a great queen.

Queen Margaret remained a popular figure in Denmark for most of her reign, and many expected her to retain the throne until death.

She is the longest-reigning queen in the country's history, and is known for her brightly colored clothes, her love of archaeology, and chain smoking.

In recent years, it has overseen a series of reforms aimed at “future-proofing” the ancient institution – which has no jurisdiction but remains symbolically important.

Most notably, it reduced the number of members of the royal family and restructured the palace's finances so that only the heir to the throne would receive a state-funded salary.

Now, it will be up to Frederick and Mary to form the next chapter.

The couple, famous for their modern values, tried to give their children as normal an upbringing as possible by sending them mostly to public schools.

They have also thrown their weight behind a host of issues.

Prince Frederik has made climate change his life's work, while Marie has gained recognition as an advocate for LGBTQI+ issues, maternal health and women's reproductive rights.

“I've always had a strong sense of justice: that everyone should have the same opportunities, no matter where they come from,” she told the Financial Times in 2022.

As millions of Danes bid farewell to the only queen they have ever known, the transfer of power – scheduled to take place on January 14 – is likely to be a moment of mixed sadness and celebration.

In her abdication speech, Margaret said: “I hope that the new King and Queen will have the same trust and loyalty that I have had.” “They deserve it! Denmark deserves it!”

But in Australia, Mary – despite having long ago renounced her citizenship – is already being celebrated as a national “ambassador”.

“I'm looking forward to watching the next generation [of royals] “The Tasmanian-born Queen is leading Denmark's future,” the state's Premier Jeremy Rockliffe said in a statement.