FAIL: Yrma La Douche Insults Her Danish Support System: Aussies First!: Swaps Exclusive Interview of Lies In Exchange for Fashion Shoot, Because FANCY CLOTHES. Old Friends Ekstra Bladet and Jens Høvsgaard Call Her Out, Lene Balleby Helps Screw It Up

MEMEMEMEMEMEME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

The lies continue! I would imagine this Women's Weekly "journalist" (no by-line, however) has shown up in her dentist's chair several times since returning to Australia from Denmark with this horridly sugary "interview" with Mary Boganson, Countess of Vacuous Blowhards and Chronic Liars and photo shoot of our favourite Tassie slapper in Australian-only designer clothing.

 

Your patience scrolling through this drivel and cloud of lies will be rewarded when you land on two reactions to Mary's photo shoot for Australia, one by our old friend Jens Høvsgaard, and the other with the reporter trying to get answers from a slippery Lene Balleby, both via the skeevy, but only brave critics of the royal house, Ekstra Bladet. Lene must have attended the Mary Boganson School of Experienced Experience Blah Blah Blah: How to Say Nothing Using Big Words Meaninglessly.

 

Article Exerpt: Australian Women's Weekly

 

A Day In The Life Of Crown Princess Mary

 

Crown Princess Mary hasn't done an interview and photo shoot with an Australian media outlet since The Australian Women's Weekly last interviewed her in 2005. Before that, Vogue Australia and Andrew Denton's Enough Rope were her only Australian media. So we are thrilled to bring you this global exclusive to celebrate our 80th birthday.

I had been told to just turn up at the Palace gates and knock, but arriving in Amelienborg Square the day before we were due to meet Crown Princess Mary I realised we had a problem. Which gates and which Palace!

The square features four identical buildings and each has two sets of gates. All look equally regal and spectacular. My fine-tuned journalistic nose led me to the one palace building open to the public: the gift shop.

"If one were to be visiting Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik, which Palace and which gate might one use," I gingerly enquired of the shop assistant, expecting to be given my marching orders as some sort of suspicious interloper.

To my surprise he was more than helpful and pointed out the Palace, the correct gate, and added that the royal children were home today but Crown Prince Frederik was off sailing!

The next day, armed with suitcases bulging with designer gowns, myself, fashion editor Mattie Cronan and our photographer Michelle Holden arrived at the gates at the allotted hour and were welcomed inside by Crown Princess Mary and her team who had laid on a lovely spread of fresh fruit and coffee.

We opened up our suitcases to reveal the gowns made by Australian designers specifically for this shoot and hung them up on a rail for Crown Princess Mary to peruse.

She was thrilled by the innovation and beauty of the designers' work and I think she enjoyed showing off her nation's creativity to her Danish compatriots. She then excitedly showed us around her home, Frederik VIII's Palace, one room at a time, each more beautiful than the last.

It is a totally stunning building and not what you would expect; full of natural light and a rather fabulous combination of modernity with antique.

Dominating the walls are incredible works of art by Danish contemporary artists many of whom reference the Crown Princess and Crown Prince and include lots of images of Australia — Tasmania especially — and things special to the couple.

Some of the art works used special paint techniques and each was unique and incredible in its own right. Colour featured everywhere.

Before the renovation — which took six years and was managed personally by The Crown Prince Couple — the walls were largely white, but now they were blue, green and yellow with rich gold on the mouldings and columns.

Every now and again Crown Princess Mary would bend down to pick up a toy or a plastic bracelet left by one of her children. A Palace yes, but a family home as well.

The Crown Princess was incredibly welcoming and following our tour, spent a long time trying on all the gowns we had brought before we decided which would work for our shoot the following day.
We started early and as we arrived with our van of lights and equipment, Crown Princess Mary drove out waving as she took her kids to school.

I had been planning this day for so long and after months of meetings, phone calls, a week in Malaysia with the Crown Princess we were finally here with the sun beaming through the windows and the wonderful backdrop of the Palace to shoot in.

The Crown Princess was a dream to work with, a natural in front of the camera — relaxed and beautiful.

Throughout it all, her faithful hound Ziggy entertained us and ensured he featured in our garden shots. To make Ziggy lift her ears on cue I threw her favourite football in the air. Ziggy obliged.
 Late in the day Princess Isabella came back from school, ran upstairs to get changed for her dance class and then snuck into our shots also, hugging her mum. And even though we were still working, Prince Christian carried on with his piano lesson as we photographed his mother in her tiara.

It was a magical day and one I suspect I will never forget. If there's such a thing as the perfect princessly behaviour, Mary has it in spades.

 

Crown Princess Mary has opened up about her fairy tale transformation from Tasmanian girl-next-door to future Queen Consort of Denmark in an interview with The Australian Women's Weekly.

Mary says she wasn't seeking fame when she met Crown Prince Frederik in a Sydney bar in 2000, and is constantly surprised by how her life has turned out.

"I never for a moment thought I'd end up living in Denmark and married to the Crown Prince but he obviously was my missing piece," she says.

 

 

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Interview: The Duchess of Edinburgh Tumblr

Crown Princess Mary: “Part of me will always be Australian, it’s who I am.” ("Denmark SUCKS!")

Australian Women’s Weekly Exclusive:

 

The exterior is circa 1750’s, all columns, colonnades and handsome symmetrical windows sparkling in the summer sun. Standing outside Frederick VIII’s Palace – one of four identical mansions that flank Amalienborg Square—it feels as if little has changed since the 18^th century, when these Rococo beauties were constructed. Royal guards in unfeasibly tall bearskin hats and bright blue uniforms carrying riddles with fearsome bayonets, protecting the Queen and her family. Yet step inside the ancient wooden gates and a very different story is unfolding. Here in Copenhagen, Their Royal Highnesses, Crown Princess Mary, the girl from Tasmania, and Crown Prince Frederik, the sporty first-born son of Queen Margarethe II, are refreshing the Danish monarchy with a glorious dash of modernity and it’s ignited an excitement that’s apparent all over town.

The Crown Prince Couple moved into the Palace in 2010 following an extensive six-year restoration that both the Crown Princess and the Crown Prince were intimately involved in (despite not contributing one tiny øre - penny - to the costs). The results are stunning, giving the Palace a sophisticated cutting-edge, but also a surprisingly homely feel. The most notable additions are the massive contemporary works of art by Danish artists – Crown Prince Frederik’s idea – which feature on many of the walls and even a single ceiling.

 

Here, Crown Princess Mary has created her own oasis of family life, where their four children run around freely (have no manners, boundaries or social skills thanks to absent parents) – Prince Christian playing a game of spies with a school friend, on one of the days I visit, and then taking his piano lesson in the Grand Hall while we photograph his mother in an Alex Perry gown. Ziggy, the Border collie, who Mary jokes, was their first child when she joined the couple nine years ago, (yeah, nobody has EVER made that remark) even leaves her chewed-up toys (most nine year old dogs don't have chew toys, and certainly not border collies) under gilt-edged tables. Mary is a very hands-on-mum and, earlier that week, faced an emotional day when she waved off daughter Princess Isabella on her first day of school (emotional because she loves standing in front of a camera posse not even focussing on her daughter?!). “She was really ready to start in school,” says the Crown Princess, her eyes lighting up as we talk about what is clearly one of her proudest achievements – her family. “She was very excited and very happy, and we were a little bit nostalgic. You know, our first little girl, realising she’s starting in school today, that was very emotional.” (the whole photo shoot was called off too early for Madam, no doubt - a very emotional situation, indeed!)

 

As The Weekly crew arrived at the gates of the Palace to set up for the day of photographs, the Crown Princess was departing, driving Christian and Isabella to school (horrible timing and very rude of Mary toward her long distance guests to skip out on an arranged arrival time for people who are going very far out of their way for her). It’s a regular school-run she shares with Crown Prince Frederik and just one of the many ways this new royal couple of bringing a more relaxed, modern approach to public life (relaxed and modern would actually be to either put those two on a school van, or to carpool with other nearby kiddos - spare me!). In a break with tradition, the school they go to is a public school (in the ritziest postal code in the nation, in a school district they do not live in or pay public taxes for) where the royal offspring as known as plain Christian and Isabella, bring their friends home for play dates and join in school camps just like all the other pupils. As we sit down for lunch together on the couple’s terrace overlooking the new opera house, Mary tells me, “The children and teacher were talking about who in Christian’s class knew anyone who was famous and the only person they could think of was one of the boy’s fathers, who plays in a band. It’s such a normal part of who Christian is that the children don’t see it as something that separates him. Also, the parents do not treat Christian differently from other children.” (that's why you told him that he's super special and going to be king and doesn't have a last name, has his portrait made both with the queen and on his own, and gets presented with special things from Greenland?)

 

The Crown Princess says that while her husband and his brother Prince Joachim may not have gone to public school, their childhood was also free and relaxed, and that is down to their mother, Queen Margarethe II, who has also been crucial in Mary’s transition to Crown Princess ("even though I've said that Frederik's childhood was difficult for him, and that I would never raise my children the way Daisy raised hers!"). “I think it’s just her nature that you should be able to work it out yourself,” Mary explains. “She trusts us to do what is right. She is amazing. She been such an important support for me, so open and warm, and she has a very fine way of showing her support. She’s never wanted to intervene, but I ask her opinion (about hat pins!). It’s in a very subtle way.” ("I want that bitch sealed up in her glass doobie coffin in 5-4-3-2...")

 

And now, the Crown Prince Couple are passing that mantle of reasoned self-determination to their own brood. “We try to give our children as normal an upbringing as we can, but also at the same time, making them aware of who they are and what they’ve been into, the traditions and history. It’s very important that we’re open and honest about the situation and involve them. But we hope that they will grow up to be extremely proud of who they are and have that strong belief in themselves… like every other parent.” (Extremely contradictory, Mary, next time you pull something out of your arse, you may want to wash some of the brown bits off before you try to sell it.)

 

So far, it’s working. “It’s early days, but both Christian and Isabella are very adaptable and easy to get along with. They’ve got good values, so they fit in very well. They’re very sociable, so I think that school for them will be very much an enjoyable time of their life,” says Mary. “In Danish schools, parents are very involved. On Friday, I’ll be sleeping out in a hut somewhere, camping with all of Christian’s school class.” (making the children bring me tea and unpack for me!)

 

The 41 year old is a long way from her own school days at Tassie’s Sandy Bay Infant School, where the youngest of the Donaldson brood was known as a chatterbox with a naughty sense of humour. And while her university lecturer father, John, is incredibly proud of his daughter, it must be painful for Mary that Henrietta Donaldson, who was also a mum of four, isn’t her to share her daughter’s success. The executive assistant to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Tasmania died suddenly, following a heart operation in 1997, before Mary had even met Crown Prince Frederik in a bar in Sydney and been whisked away to his castle in Denmark. (Sweet Joizus! No one gets out alive and 16 years later, you'd think Mary could find something else to pretend to be sad about!)

 

Growing up, Mary was fiercely close to her mother, whom she says is always with her, and in many ways, you can’t help feeling the driven, highly professional Crown Princess gets a lot of her courage and inspiration from memories of her mother. “I’m sure she would be very happy to see me where I am, not only happy in my family life and as a mother, but able to see that I’ve used my new situation and the resources and skills I have to form a platform to make a different where I can… and I think she’s probably smiling,” the Crown Princess tells me. “She definitely taught me to be independent and to trust in myself, and believe in myself. She made me think that whatever you set your mind to do, if you go after it, you can achieve it.” (What did she say? "Inde-f*cking-pendent"!?!?)

 

Mary is certainly achieving in a way her mother never could have foreseen. Indeed, it’s still slightly baffling to think that this Danish VIP was once an ad exec in Melbourne, a sales director and manager in Sydney, and even a backpacker looking to fix a dose of 20-something wanderlust with 10 months of global roaming. Here, now, she looks every inch the refined European princess, part of a new generation of young royals redefining the royal role for the modern world (and it's amazing that something that was once a tree can become glossy, varnished furniture with a few rounds of an electric sander! Or that tin cans with wings can fly people around the world! Modernity - it truly is amazing and revolutionary!). “Around 80 percent of the Danish population support the monarchy and Princess Mary is one of the most popular in the royal family, according to recent opinion polls,” says Dr Hovbakke Sorensen, a historian at the University of Copenhagen. “She shows a lot of interest in the ‘ordinary Dane.’(meaning of course, only the ones who staff high-end boutiques or the ones who get in the way of her Land Rover on their bikes) She is not the kind of princess who only thinks of herself or lives her live separated from the ordinary population, behind the thick walls of the castle (that's true - she also thinks of Amber when she remembers how Amber could make millions off the exposé she could write on Mary). No matter if she is visiting a refugee camp in Jordan or a school class of seven year-old Danish pupils, she shows a warm interest for each individual she is meeting and talking to. And she is very informal when she talks to people, which the Danes like very much.”

 

To the Danes, Mary really is the consummate perfect Princess and it’s easy to see why. Part of the perfection is the way Crown Princess Mary carries herself: her classy dress sense, her almost balletic poise and aura of calm confidence (do they pipe in laughing gas in Mary's apartments?). Yet part is most certainly her four royal adorable offspring—first a boy and heir, Christian Valdemar Henri John in 2005, then Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margarethe in 2007 and, finally, the twins in 2011, Vincent Frederik Minik Alexander and Josephine Sophia Ivalo Mathilda, making two boys and two girls in total. Perfect, indeed. (And quite by design. *wink* to Dr. Yehudi Geldstein)

 

The other side of Mary’s popularity are her role model “good works”, which grow in reach each year and which the Danes thoroughly approve of. In Denmark, she set up The Mary Foundation to tackle bullying, loneliness and domestic violence in a small but focused, pragmatic way. “I’ve questioned my interest in these areas,” says Mary. “And if you talk about school yard bullying, I didn’t suffer directly, but I’ve probably been passive to it (no, there are people on record who've talked about your direct involvement in exclusivity of others - and it continues to this day). And it’s also important to engage the passive people.” (er, not if they don't want it, which would be bullying and an attitude that your way is the only way. Please define passive in this case and what age these people are. Many children and adults are more introverted observers by nature.) And with the twins now at two-and-a-half and Christian and Isabella at school, the Crown Princess has stepped up a gear, shifting her work onto the world stage. (Cause Denmark's too small, baby!!)

 

It was on the world stage that I first met the Crown Princess, a couple of months earlier, and it showed me a very different side to this truly impressive royal. In Kuala Lumpur, a Muslim city in the midst of a building boom, with a melange of cultures, where you may think Princess Mary wouldn’t garner a second glance, she was a figure of awe and wonder (funny, Mary didn't have Billed Bladet or any other agencies cover her visit and those who were there didn't take note). She is one of several thousand women from all over the world taking part in the Women Deliver Conference. This is not a royal duty for the Crown Princess, but part of her extensive work for the High-level Task Force for the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and independent body campaigning for global sexual and reproductive health, and rights for women and adolescents. I watch the Tasmanian-born mum of four as she fulfils a gruelling round of photo ops and meetings in pertinently selected “needy” places – the maternity wing of a hospital for mothers with gestational diabetes, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, a school for refugee kids on the first floor of a tumbledown building above a motorcycle repair shop—while her own little ones and husband are back in Denmark (each with their own nanny - well, ok, Fred gets two). It’s a telling glimpse of her hectic schedule both as a jobbing princess and a human rights advocate, and an opportunity for me to see how the rest of the world reacts to this Aussie commoner who rose to the ranks of royalty and captivated her new nation.

 

Mary’s focus is in social, health and humanitarian fields, and she’s a patron and major advocate for organisations, some of which include the United Nations Population Fund, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, the Danish Refugee Council, Maternity Worldwide and the National Association of Women’s Shelters. It’s an incredible resume (please. did you see the one before she used the ill-named Mary Fund as a mechanism to force Mary onto celebrity panels so she could meet celebrities?) and the work she does goes far beyond just being a figurehead (no it doesn't). The Crown Princess hangs out with former presidents and humanitarian movers and shakers. (She met Danny Glover! He might have maybe fallen in love, y'all! It happens a lot.)

 

Crown Princess Mary visits developing countries, discussing issues such as maternal health, family planning, young brides, and gender-based violence, intent on persuading governments to invest in girl (and woman) power. This isn’t just a round of meet and greets, shaking hands and raising awareness. This is affirmative action requiring serious hard yards with committees comprised of super-smart and powerful people (there is no action except by the Danish Ministry of Development to keep The Brown Poors and Muslims out of Denmark). The tiny nation of Denmark, with its 5.6 million inhabitants, is an important player on the world development stage (since when?) and the Crown Princess is doing her bit to contribute (to her own ego, and fame overseas). It’s Mary’s rational approach to what many see as heartrendingly difficult problems that make you feel this woman, this Crown Princess, could really affect change. “It started when I attended a Maternity Worldwide event six or seven years ago and there was an obstetrician from Chad there, and she said that, in her country, when a woman gets pregnant, she has one foot in the grave, ("well, that's what I told Yehudi he'd have if he screwed up on the Miracle Twins. Man, Daisy did NOT see that coming, hehe!)” Crown Princess Mary tells me as we sit by the hotel pool, amid Kuala Lumpur’s skyscrapers (in her 5 star hotel). “Those words stuck and I automatically thought, ‘How is it in the world we are living in today, that a woman should risk life to give life?’”

 

What Mary brings to the table that feels new and vital in this rather earnest world of do-gooders is a sense of practical application (Crikey! She's never put ideas into action except for the Mary-focused Mary Fund). Her speech here in Malaysia on behalf of the High-Level Task Force in front of a packed amphitheatre, is fuelled with fighting talk and receives impromptu applause, not because she is Crown Princess Mary, but because her powerful call for ensuring women’s health and rights hits a resonant chord in politicians, activists and nurses alike. As a happy and privileged mother of four, maternal deaths trigger a knee-jerk reaction of shock and horror, but this mum also seems to be completely in her element talking humanitarian issues on the world stage ("Bono loves me. I hope to meet him one day, I'm SUCH an admirer of his tax dodging skills and elite-driven technocratic solutions which can never be criticised because POOR BLACK PEOPLE"). “I do feel honoured to be invited to speak here,” she tells me, quietly. “I have spoken at international conferences before, but this is my first time being part of a panel with such eminent and respected individuals and I feel very nervous.” (Give up the false modesty, Mares!)

 

As we chat more, I realise that she sounds like a Dane speaking English, rather than an Aussie speaking her mother tongue (yep, that's what she wants you to believe, that she's the spiritual daughter of the Home Counties). And while her relaxed congeniality and get-things (things, ie. stealing pricey frocks and figuring out what new money making adverts she can do back home, ie. Australia) done approach remind you totally of the Aussie girl inside, her mannerisms, her intonation and her classic, elegant look feel very Scandinavian. Part of this transformation is obviously organic—Mary has been living in Denmark for more than 10 years now—but part is down to more of that hard work (because lying takes EFFORT, y'all!). Right from the get-go, Mary knew she had to knuckle down and learn Danish and not just a few words—she needed to be (quasi-)fluent. “The barrier of language at time was hard and yes, I felt lonely” she tells me. “I couldn’t express myself as I wanted to. I couldn’t jump in and come back with a quick remark. I couldn’t really understand what was being said. You know language is so intrinsic to being part of a society and a group, and particularly to knowing what it means to be a Dane, what the culture is, the traditions, their humour,” she explains. Mastering Danish is far from easy and for Mary, who says she had never learned a second language (what about the 'fluent in French' lie?), there was definitely a mountain to climb. “It took time,” she says, laughing. Mary’s instruction was rigorous, with two teachers and multiple sessions, and when she talks to her staff I can’t tell the Dane from the Aussie (in fairness, perhaps the reporter is blind). I ask how deep the language is with her now. “I think in Danish and ja, I dream in Danish,” she replies. And when I meet her a few months later in her Palace home, with her children and her aides, they all communicate in Danish—although Princess Isabella does also introduce herself to our crew in perfect English. (Thank you, Fred, for helping her practice her English!)

 

Not speaking the language wasn’t the only thing that isolated Mary when she took the plunge and moved to Denmark back in 2003. She missed her family and friends acutely, and it wasn’t the first time this had happened to her (fucking hell! Look at this post then tell me when Mary spent any time alone back then). When Mary first left Australia to live overseas, she was 26. She had been building an impressive career in advertising and living in Melbourne. “I saw myself as, one day, being the managing director of an international company,” she says (knowing that you'll forget that nothing about her career path or reputation among her bosses led in that direction). Yet when her mother died unexpectedly, it threw a curve ball into Mary’s planned world. “The loss of my mother was a complete shock. I don’t think anyone can prepare for that. And it certainly changes your perspective on life. I went back to work quite quickly, but things in my head had changed. I had a sense of ‘now is the most important time’ and that it was no longer appropriate for me to put off things that I’d always dreamt of doing. So, six months after my mother’s death, I resigned and travelled the world for 10 months. And not until I was on that plane with my backpack in the hold, sitting by myself, did I think, ‘What have I done? Where am I going?’” Mary wound up in Scotland, seeking out relatives of her parents and, true to form, landed a good job there, but she couldn’t stay. “I suddenly realised I couldn’t be so far away from my family.” (Australia is EVERYTHING to me.)

 

Five years later, when she first arrived in Denmark, Mary felt a tinge of that homesickness again. “Moving to a new country, a new language, not having support of family and friends (wow, so all those girls who escorted you all over the damn place in Denmark and at Cayx, those people who are supposedly your friends, they don't count?)… I mean, of course, I’ve always had the support of my husband—boyfriend then—but there have been times when I’ve felt a little bit like fish out of water,” Mary reveals ("or just fish. Fish that's been sitting out in the sun for a few days"). Fortunately, love seems to have conquered and that sense of separateness is totally gone today to the Danes, rather than being an outsider, Mary is seen as one of them (only by virtue of her social security number). “She’s very loved in Denmark,” says Helle Bill Madsen, a royal reporter in Denmark (by Billed Bladet's editors). “Everybody says that she is what Frederik needed. When he gave speeches, Frederik says that she is really the missing part of his life.” (This is true. He never before had a rude, greedy succubus twist his soul and squeeze him dry before he met Mary! Awww!)

 

The Crown Princess smiles when I ask her about this romantic declaration from her husband. “We’re good together,” she says. “We’re very different in some ways and then, in other ways, those differences complement each other. He was my missing piece, of course, but not the piece I thought that was missing, if that makes sense. You know, I never thought for a moment that I’d end up living in Denmark married to the Crown Prince (until the day that Beatric Tarnawski told my roommate Andrew Miles to bring some good time gals to the Slip Inn where some princes would be, hey yeah!). But he was obviously my missing piece (missing link? Eh?). Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here today.” (What the fuck does any of that mean? Her usual vague 'experienced experience' blah blah.)

 

“According to the recent opinion polls, they are both very popular,” says Dr Sorensen. “Many Danes expect them to be a modern King and Queen Consort, maybe more informal than Queen Margarethe II and Prince Henrik. And this fits very well with the population’s expectations of a step-by-step modernisation of the monarchy.” The royal couple are also very visible in their home city. The family can frequently been seen riding their bikes in the parks or the Crown Princess also likes to go jogging (after she calls her favourite photographers with the time and location of her outings). “A good weekend is when we don’t have any plans. We love a Saturday morning when you don’t have to rush, when we can play, read the papers and stay in our pyjamas until late,” says Mary (I have yet to meet a family with school age children who do not have any sort of activities or play dates to attend on a Saturday). “And then we love being physically active. We go out, ride bikes, we go to the park, go walking in the forest and we all love swimming.” (And beating up Fred is about as much fun as it gets! Emotional blackmail also burns a super amount of calories! And Fred himself likes to work on his guns by switching the whisky bottle between his left and right hands.)

 

And while they may speak Danish and live in a palace, Mary is making sure her children know about her homeland, too. “I love teaching them about Australia and the funny Australian animals, giving them an impression of where I grew up because that’s part of their heritage as well, part of who they are. I think I’ve got every fluffy indigenous animal there is and Christian was given his own Tasmanian devils as a christening gift, to live in the zoo in Copenhagen. They died of old age, but the zoo received young new ones.” (Xian is not quite 8 years old. Is the life span of a Tasmanian devil really just 8 years? And is that really all there is to Australia, the funny animals? Oh, and Australia is where their mother grew up, but it is NOT a part of their heritage. It's just a place with funny animals where they visit their gargoyle cousins.)

 

The family loves to visit Australia and the next trip for the royal couple is at the end of this month, when they take on their new roles as patrons of the 40^th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House and cement a permanent connection between Denmark and Australia (thanks, Harry, for paving the way for Miss Mary's visit!). “In Denmark, I miss of course, family and friends, but when I come back to Australia, I realise that I’ve also missed Australia,” admits the Crown Princess. “I see things that I haven’t seen in a long time, like the cliffs between Bondi and Tamarama. We love coming back to Australia. Some of our best memories together are from Australia and part of me will always be Australia. It’s who I am.” (So, no one could miss Denmark? Not very PR savvy of you, Mary! Should mention some blah blah about how when you return to Denmark, that you feel that you're home. After all, your "beloved" children live there and it's actually paying for your ridiculous lifestyle!)

 

As we pack up to leave, I am struck by how radiant Mary looks in our photos (once we Photoshopped her) and how settled she seems in her home. “I think it’s an exciting chapter I’m embarking on,” she tells me. “I’m in a very happy place. My wonderful family life and what Frederik and I have together are all that I cherish the most.” (an exiting chapter? Eh? Global ramp ups are often followed by down low separation announcements. What she and Fred have together are four children which he will get custody of.)
 

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Reaction: Ekstra Bladet

Expert to Mary: Drop the Bare Toes

Royal House expert Jens Høvsgaard means that Crown Princess Mary should not present herself as such on the cover of Women's Weekly

The Danish Crown princess Mary graces the cover of the Australian women's magazine Women's Weekly this month. The Crown Princess has opened his home up and been photographing in a long white dress and with bare feet on the occasion of the magazine's 80th anniversary. The photo of the barefoot princess adorns the cover page.

But it's not smart of Mary that she shows herself as barefoot, considers royal family expert Jens Høvsgaard, author of the book "It costs a kingdom".

"It is a completely wrong signal. She sits there in bare feet and shows legs and actually looks more like a Hollywood star than a head of state", he says.

"If you imagine Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt posing in this way, you would lose all respect for her and think, 'Who the hell does she think she is'?", concludes Jens Høvsgaard.

As the chief editor of ladies' magazine Alt for Damerne, Tina Nikolaisen deeply disagrees.

"I think it's really great and brave the Crown Princess puts herself out there with bare toes. It shows a different side of her", says Tina Nikolaisen.

The pictures of Crown Princess Mary are exclusive for the Australian magazine, and no Danish media have the opportunity to purchase the images and bring them to the Danish public.

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Article: Ekstra Bladet

Danes Not Allowed To See Mary This Way

Princess Mary has once again opened the doors to the newly renovated mansion at Amalienborg Palace, where she and her family live.

However, as a Dane , you are not welcome.Again, it is her Australian companions who stand with an invitation in hand, while Danish subjects do not even get to watch from the sidelines.

When the Australian monthly magazine Women's Weekly (which did not change its name to Women's Monthly, when it became a monthly magazine) chose October to celebrate its 80th birthday, it is with this cover.

Here it appears that the magazine has gotten exclusive access to Amalienborg Palace and a private conversation with Mary in those grandiose surroundings.

The images will never be available to the Danes, who each year through her apanage ensure that Mary and her family can live a life on life's absolute sunny side.

"These photos were taken in connection with an exclusive series for the magazine's 80th birthday and both the interview and the pictures are targeting this purpose", says the court's communications director Lene Balleby to Ekstra Bladet.

"But why should the Danes did not see them?"

"It's not about Danes not being able to see the pictures, but to preserve the exclusivity that is precisely expressed when the magazine has been approved for a great interview."

"Why do Danish media is not the same access to exclusive image series?"
"It is the indeed in contexts where given more interviews. Both newspapers and several magazines have their own photographers generated image series for major interviews", says Balleby.

Mary has given exclusive access to reports that a medium such as Billed-Bladet can only dream about. In 2005, she invited Australian Vogue home for a photo shoot which has not since been surpassed.

And in 2010 it was the German edition of Vogue, who got exclusive images, also not to be resold to Danish media.

According to the cover, Mary says, among other things, that she will always feel as an Australian.

Perhaps that is why it is only them who are invited completely inside.