{"id":194658,"date":"2026-04-12T19:38:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/194658\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T19:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T19:38:41","slug":"queen-marys-father-john-donaldson-has-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/194658\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Mary\u2019s Father, John Donaldson, Has Died"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Estimated2 min read<\/p>\n

Queen Mary of Denmark\u2019s father, Professor John Dalgleish Donaldson, has died in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. He was 84 years old. \u201cMy heart is heavy, and my thoughts are grey,\u201d the Queen said in a statement. \u201cMy beloved father has passed away. But I know that when the grief settles, the memories will brighten my day, and what will remain strongest is love and gratitude for everything he gave me and taught me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Danish royal family added, \u201cProfessor John Donaldson’s health has been declining over the past few years. The Queen last visited her father at the end of March, where they shared precious time together.\u201d No further details were shared about his health or his cause of death.<\/p>\n

\"DanishAFP\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Crown Princess Mary (sitting, L) holds her daughter Princess Isabella while her spouse, Crown Prince Frederik (sitting R) holds their son, Prince Christian, as they pose July 1, 2007 with the children\u2019s grandparents for an official photo at Fredensborg Palace. Her father, John Donaldson, stands directly behind her.<\/p>\n

Donaldson, born in Scotland on September 5, 1941, was a Professor of Applied Mathematics. In 1963, he and his wife, Henrietta Clark Horne, emigrated to Tasmania. In Australia, they had four children: Jane Alison Donaldson (b. December 1965), Patricia Anne Donaldson (b. March 1968), John Stuart Donaldson (b. July 1970) and Mary Elizabeth Donaldson (b. February 1972).<\/p>\n

Mary\u2019s mother and Donaldson\u2019s first wife, Henrietta, died in 1997. Donaldson remarried to Susan Moody in 2001.<\/p>\n

\"DENMARK-AUSTRALIA-ROYALS-OBIT\"Nils Meilvang\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Donaldson, father of Danish Queen Mary, and his wife Susan Moody in 2011.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Denmark\u2019s Acting Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said that the government \u201csends its deepest condolences to Her Majesty Queen Mary, His Majesty King Frederik, their children and the immediate family.\u201d She added, \u201cthe Danes got to know John Donaldson when he proudly and warmly led his daughter up the aisle and gave Denmark its crown princess. We will never forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A private memorial service will be held for Donaldson at a later date.<\/p>\n

Related Story\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Emily Burack (she\/her) is the Deputy Digital Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, celebrities, the royals, and a wide range of other topics. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma, a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Instagram, Twitter, and other social media platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2 min read Queen Mary of Denmark\u2019s father, Professor John Dalgleish Donaldson, has died in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[50892,567,77774,569,77773,48922,568,9,24,63,122,124,123,58803,77772,50891],"class_list":{"0":"post-194658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-collection-royal-family-news","9":"tag-content-type-news","10":"tag-contentid-ba1b9b4f-9bbd-495a-8746-e6d437ebf343","11":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","12":"tag-has-died","13":"tag-john-donaldson","14":"tag-locale-us","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-nyc","18":"tag-queens","19":"tag-queens-headlines","20":"tag-queens-news","21":"tag-read_time-2","22":"tag-shorttitle-queen-marys-father","23":"tag-subsection-heritage"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}