NAME: Mary Donaldson

AGE: 32

NATIONALITY: Danish

CLAIM TO FAME: The Australian who will become the Queen of Denmark

A prince rides into town, sees the pretty maiden and falls in love with her. Thereafter follows a four year relationship that ends in the fair maiden becoming the Queen of Denmark.

Sigh!

These words could very well be sentences out of a fairy tale. But luckily for Mary Donaldson, this is exactly what is going through in her life right now. Except that she’ll have to wait for sometime to become the Queen.

The adventures in European monarchy of the ex-marketing executive from Australian began nearly four years back, when during the Sydney Olympics, she had a chance meeting with Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark. That meeting, as the two would later recall, resulted in a friendship that eventually took them on a path of love, romance and an ever-lasting relationship. However, it wasn’t before April 2003 that rumours were confirmed and the whole affair was publicly announced by Frederik’s mother, Queen Margrethe. And before the excitement had even died down, the palace announced, a royal wedding would take place the following spring.

The thirty-two year old is probably having the time of her life. But when dreams come true, with it also comes a reality check. For on Friday, the ex-Australian became not only Denmark’s Queen-in-waiting, she also became the first Australian to become a member of a serving European monarchy. In the process, she relinquished a number of her liberties. She has already given up her Australian citizenship. She has also converted from her Presbyterian faith to the Danish Lutheran Church. And in-case of any disasters, such as a divorces, Mary Donaldson has also given up her rights to the couple’s children. The court is obviously trying to avoid any mess-ups that followed the breakup of Prince Charles and Princess Diana. And whoever heard of a Danish Queen who doesn’t know how to speak Danish? So, Mary took a crash course and is now fluent in the language. So much so, that she now converses in English with a Danish accent.

Still, Mary is working hard to tackle the rigours of being a royal. “Today is the first day of my new role,” she said after appearing on the palace balcony as Frederik’s fiancee for the first time. “It is something that will evolve over time and I have much to learn and experience.”

And it seems that her hardwork may be paying-off. Already she has won the hearts of the Danes. One poll result declared that 75 per cent of her future subjects believed she would make a good queen. “Wow! Isn’t she wonderful?” exclaimed one Copenhagen newspaper. “She’s fantastic. It will be no wonder if in the future Danish schoolgirls choose to mimic Mary in the mirror instead of Britney Spears.” Wow, now that is indeed music to Mary’s ears.