In January 2022, the Danish monarch, Queen Margrethe (81), has sat on the throne for a full 50 years. She took over the throne from her father, King Frederik, who died on 14 January 1972, and became Denmark’s first female monarch.

On the occasion of the Queen’s 50th anniversary over the New Year, she and author Tom Buk-Swienty come out with a book in which they look back on the 81-year-old’s year as monarch.

In the book, based on 14 conversations between the queen and the author, she opens up for the first time about her and her husband, the late Prince Henrik, tricked the press around. It writes Extra Bladet.

Crafty plan

Margrethe and Henrik married in 1967 and on that occasion had to go on a honeymoon to the Turkish Mediterranean coast, more specifically to the Aegean Sea.

However, the newlyweds would rather enjoy themselves alone, without lots of journalists and photographers running around. Thus, the then chief of staff, Ebbe Munck, hatched what the queen refers to as «a cunning plan».

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«Even at that time you could fly directly to Izmir (the destination for your honeymoon journ.anm.) From Copenhagen. But we chose to fly around London so that it became more difficult to push ourselves up. We wanted to avoid the pressure as much as possible “, it appears in the book, according to the Danish newspaper.

However, the ingenious plan was only partially successful. After a few days of searching, the pressure found Margrethe and Henrik on holiday. They still managed to make an agreement so that one could enjoy some privacy on his honeymoon.

“We quickly learned that we could be photographed standing in front of the hotel with a palm tree in the background, in exchange for the journalists being very at peace after that. And they did.

Unpopular

Prince Henrik died on 13 February 2018, aged 83. He had had poor health since January of the same year, which towards the end still deteriorated.

He and Queen Margrethe were married for over 50 years.

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However, the French-born prince was not always as popular with the Danish people.

Until recently, he created controversy, among other things when he proclaimed that he would not be buried with the queen of the land. He was also repeatedly open about feeling bad about not getting the title of king.

The year before he died, he was diagnosed with dementia.

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