Now that The Crown is over, should Peter Morgan start chronicling the dramas of the Danish royal family? Det Krone? Because Denmark’s long-reigning Queen Margrethe just made a historic announcement, and rumor has it, there’s a scandalous reason why.
On December 31, 2023, Queen Margrethe II made her annual New Year’s Eve address to the nation (if you’re just learning that Denmark even has a royal family…welcome to the convo!), and announced her decision to step down in two weeks’ time. In her statement, she chalked it up to the length of her reign (over half a century) and her recent back surgery. After all, the woman is 83; it makes sense that she would want to relax a little and let the younger generation do the work instead. According to People‘s translation, she ended her remarks, “It is my hope that the new royal couple will be met with the same trust and affection that have been shared with me.”
However reasonable the Queen’s speech made her seem, the fact is this is the first Danish abdication in over five hundred years. And the press has a pretty good theory about the timing: she’s doing it to save her son’s marriage. In November 2023, there were rumors that the Crown Prince, Frederik, was having an affair with a Spanish socialite whose name is literally Genoveva Casanova. The two were pictured together, but Casanova (Casanova!!!!) denied the affair. But still, suspicious, right?
“It’s possible that the Queen took this action because she would have been terrified of the marriage breaking up and the royal family losing [the Crown Prince’s wife] Mary. It would have caused major problems. The Queen has always seen Mary as a tremendous asset,” royal gossip reporter Phil Dampier told The Telegraph, per People. “It just seems an extraordinary coincidence that she should make this unexpected announcement just a couple of months after stories emerged of the Crown Prince supposedly having an affair,” he said, adding, “In two weeks’ time, the Prince and Princess will be pitched together as King and Queen and they will have to get on with it. The Queen may be thinking that they will patch up their differences and it will save their marriage.” Can’t see anything going wrong with that plan!
In fairness, Dampier did seem to come to this conclusion after thinking about it for only thirty-six hours (pt 1, pt 2, pt 3), which seems like not a ton of time to research, but maybe his sources are quick!
