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History is packed with examples of outsiders marrying into royalty but Mary Donaldson’s chance meeting with Prince Frederick was the stuff of royal wedding dreams.
Her story echoes that of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s fairytale love story, which saw them wed at Windsor Castle on May 19.
Much like Meghan, Princess Mary was working in the media as an advertising executive in her early professional life.
An Australian national, she was born on February 5, 1972 in Hobart to Scottish parents John Donaldson and Henrietta Horne.
After her father’s work saw the family move to Texas, she was educated at Clear Lake elementary School in Houston, Texas, before moving back to Hobart for her secondary education.
She then started attending Taroona High School from 1983 to 1986, before graduating from the University of Tasmania in 1997 with a degree in Commerce and Law.
The future Danish queen began working at advertising agency DDB Needham and then MOJO Partners in Melbourne, before a personal tragedy struck the future princess.
In November 1997, Mrs Donaldson’s mother died from a heart condition when Mary was just 26-years-old.
Her mother’s sudden death led to her resigning from her job six months later, in order to spend the next year travelling through America and Europe with a particular focus on Scotland, her parents’ homeland.
She worked for three months in Edinburgh, before returning to Australia in early 1999 when she started working in Sydney.
And her decision to return to Australia gave way to her chance meeting with Prince Frederick, the love of her life.
At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the Crown Prince and his friends – including brother Prince Joachim of Denmark, cousin Prince Nikolaus of Greece and Denmark, Princess Märtha Louise of Norway and the now King Felipe VI of Spain – decided to spend their night at the Slip Inn, a traditional Australian bar in the capital.
Mary and Frederik chatted, where Mary is said to have given her phone number to Frederik in the bar, who called her the next day.
They began a long-distance relationship until Mary decided to relocate to Europe in 2002 and moved to Copenhagen where she began working for Microsoft.
The couple’s engagement was announced on September 24, 2003, when the Danish Court said that Queen Margrethe II intended to give her official consent to the union on a State Council meeting in October 2003.
Mary and Frederik married on 14 May 2004 in a fairytale ceremony held at Copenhagen Cathedral.
They couple are now a family of six after the birth of their four children: Prince Christian, Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.
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