{"id":935437,"date":"2026-10-20T22:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935437\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T22:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T22:36:17","slug":"queen-mary-felt-left-out-and-like-an-outsider-after-leaving-australia-for-denmark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935437\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Mary felt \u2018left out\u2019 and like an \u2018outsider\u2019 after leaving Australia for Denmark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Queen Mary<\/a> has admitted to having felt like an \u201coutsider\u201d when she left Australia more than 20 years ago to move to Denmark for love<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking in a new interview, Mary revealed not knowing the Danish language lead to her feeling \u201ca bit left out\u201d and isolated, particularly at social events.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Queen Mary of Denmark, seen with Vietnam\u2019s first lady on Tuesday, has spoken of feeling isolated in her early days of living in Denmark.\u00a0Sebastian Elias Uth\/Ritzau Scanpix via AP<\/p>\n

The 54-year-old was born in Hobart and later met her future husband, the now King Frederik X<\/a>, at a pub in Sydney during the Olympics in 2000.<\/p>\n

They kept in touch via emails, long-distance phone calls and old-fashioned letters in the post.<\/p>\n

In 2002, Mary moved to Copenhagen. Prior to that, Frederik had been making private visits to Australia to see his girlfriend, with reports he made as many as six trips following the Olympics.<\/p>\n

Queen Mary spoke about her early days living in Denmark as part of a wider interview on loneliness and bullying, two of the core areas her charity The Mary Foundation has focused on since its creation in 2007.<\/p>\n

The interview was given to children\u2019s newspaper B\u00f8rneavisen\u00a0and the questions asked by its young journalist, Augusta.<\/p>\n

She asked Queen Mary: \u201cHave you ever felt like an outsider?\u201d<\/p>\n

The queen answered: \u201cYes, I\u2019ve also felt a bit left out. It\u2019s been especially hard in certain situations. For example, when I lost my mother, I felt very alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queen Mary\u2019s mother died in November 1997 of complications from heart surgery. Mary was just 25.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Queen Mary spoke with student journalist Augusta about bullying and loneliness for her charity The Mary Foundation.\u00a0Instagram\/@mary_fonden<\/p>\n

In April, Mary\u2019s father John Donaldson died<\/a>, aged 84, following years of ailing health. The queen and King Frederik travelled to Australia in late September<\/a> for a private memorial service in Hobart.<\/p>\n

Queen Mary said she also experienced feelings of isolation soon after leaving Australia to begin a new life in Denmark two decades ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I moved to Denmark, I couldn\u2019t speak the language at all,\u201d Queen Mary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you don\u2019t know the language and you\u2019re sitting at a dinner, or playing a game and can\u2019t really follow, you feel a bit left out.<\/p>\n

\"Crown<\/p>\n

Then-Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik at a wedding in 2003, the first time they allowed photographers to capture them together at an event in Denmark.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helped me if someone explained to me what was going on, or if I asked the others to speak more slowly. These small gestures helped me feel less alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd as the language improved, I no longer felt like an outsider.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was on October 8, 2003, that the Royal House announced the engagement of then-Crown Prince Frederik to Mary Donaldson.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Queen Mary hosted Vietnam\u2019s first lady for a tour of Denmark\u2019s first rooftop farm on Tuesday.\u00a0Martin Sylvest Andersen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

She was introduced to Denmark via a media conference inside the palace in which she spoke Danish publicly for the first time, as well as English.<\/p>\n

During that media conference Mary told the journalists: “I have read that I speak fluent Danish. Thank you, but unfortunately it is not completely true.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you ask a question in Danish, please feel free to speak slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

King Frederik and Queen Mary attended a concert at Copenhagen\u2019s Glyptotek museum as the Vietnam state visit comes to an end.\u00a0Mads Claus Rasmussen\/Ritzau Scanpix via AP<\/p>\n

Mary impressed the Danes by how quickly she mastered the language after undergoing intensive lessons with one of the country\u2019s top experts.<\/p>\n

At the royal wedding, Mary\u2019s mother-in-law Queen Margrethe II<\/a> praised Mary for having the courage to leave Australia \u201cwhere she grew up to settle very far away\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow she takes up a new and challenging life.\u00a0As we have come to know Mary we, her parents-in-law, have come to love and admire her \u2212 she has great inner strength. And she exudes a calm warmth that inspires confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe has shown the courage to place her future life in Denmark \u2212 may we always be worthy of her trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, 24 years after leaving her family, friends and life in Australia, Mary is one of the most popular members of the Danish royal family.<\/p>\n

This week, she and King Frederik are hosting Vietnam\u2019s president and his wife during a three-day state visit to Denmark.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Queen Mary moved from Australia to Denmark 24 years ago to start a new life with the now King Frederik.\u00a0Martin Sylvest Andersen\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Overnight, the king and queen joined the presidential couple for a concert inside Copenhagen\u2019s Glyptoteket museum to celebrate the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Denmark and Vietnam.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Queen Mary and Vietnam\u2019s first lady Ngo Phuong Ly toured the \u00d8sterGro rooftop farm. In 2024, it became Denmark\u2019s first urban rooftop farm, growing organic vegetables, herbs and flowers. <\/p>\n

The two women walked through the garden before having lunch inside its greenhouse restaurant Gro Spiseri, which bases its seasonal menus on crops from the roof.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Monday, the king and queen hosted a state banquet and Mary wore a reworked tiara that previously belonged to Frederik\u2019s great-grandmother.\u00a0The Danish Royal House<\/p>\n

On Monday evening, Vietnam\u2019s president T\u00f4 L\u00e2m and his wife joined the king and queen for a glittering state banquet inside Christiansborg Palace.<\/p>\n

Queen Mary wore, for the first time, a sapphire and diamond tiara<\/a> that once belonged to Frederik\u2019s great-grandmother Queen Alexandrine.<\/p>\n

Mary, in collaboration with local jewellers, reworked the historic tiara giving \u201cthe piece of jewellery a new, fully reversible design\u201d, the Royal House said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA design that respects the piece\u2019s history and special tradition and makes it usable today,\u201d the Royal House added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Queen Mary has admitted to having felt like an \u201coutsider\u201d when she left Australia more than 20 years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-935437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}