Two future queens and an extraordinary resemblance. Not just physics.
Mary, née Donaldson, turned 52 on February 5 and will sit next to the new King Frederik X of Denmark in a few days. And Kate, née Middleton, who turns 42 on January 9th, Princess of Wales after the accession of Charles III. in London.
Kate and Mary, two commoners, two commoners who entered the court and were able to arouse widespread sympathy among the public.
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Ten years apart, but the same eyes, the same long raven hair and the same slim body. In addition, they shared the same civil life path before entering the palace and a common interest in the theme of childhood, which they placed at the heart of their engagement as kings. Everything is linked by a real friendship, which led to Kate often flying from London to Copenhagen and Mary from Denmark to the UK. Last February, Kate also landed in Copenhagen for one of her rare solo engagements and was welcomed by Queen Margrethe at Amalienborg Palace. Ultimately, the bond between the two families is strong.
“Relations between the two royal families are very close,” British historian Hugo Vickers confirmed to the Courier. And it is no coincidence that Queen Margrethe II asked for a minute's silence at the gala dinner on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in memory of her “friend” and cousin Elizabeth II. Perhaps it is enough to remember that Margrethe II and Elizabeth II shared a great-great-grandmother. In addition, Prince Philip, Elizabeth's husband, had come to London as Prince of Greece and Denmark. So much so that at Philip's funeral in 2021, Queen Margrethe ordered the flags in Amalienborg to be flown at half-mast, like at Buckingham Palace. The fact is that the Danish kings are most closely connected in Gotha thanks to King Christian IX, who placed daughters and sons on all the thrones in Europe (Alexandra next to King Edward VII in London): relatives of King Charles XVI. Gustav of Sweden with King Felipe VI. of Spain via Harald V of Norway. And the Windsors are no different, thanks to Queen Victoria.
Mary and Kate, two girls next door brought into the royal walls by two authentic passions. And that within these golden walls (unlike Meghan Markle) they found their comfort zone, which allowed them to build projects, a future, a family. And by the way, both of them have also experienced how difficult it is in a family (especially a royal one) to live together with the ruler's younger son: in London Harry, in Copenhagen Joachim.
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Mary, who will be ceremoniously proclaimed queen alongside Frederik at Christiansborg Palace on January 14th, grew up in Australia and met the Danish heir to the throne in a pub in Sydney at the 2000 Olympic Games. The “green” princess, godmother of the Global Fashion Summit for sustainable fashion, has launched the Mary Foundation, a major aid initiative for children and mothers looking for refuge from poverty and violence. “More than the burden of responsibility of being a princess, I feel that as a royal I have a very strong platform to get the message across,” Mary Corriere explained when we met her on a visit to Milan . And she paused to talk about her children, Prince Christian, now the new heir to the throne, Isabella and the twins Vincent and Josephine: a modern princess mother. Another element of the connection with Kate, the mother of the heir to the throne George, but also of Charlotte and Luis, who instead launched “Shaping Us”, the Princess of Wales’s early childhood education campaign supported by the Royal Foundation: “It will serve to build a better society of the future.”
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