The couple met at the Slip Inn, a pub in Sydney, when the prince was visiting Australia during the 2000 Summer Olympics. Their official engagement in 2003 and their marriage the following year were the subject of extensive attention from Australian and European news media, which portrayed the marriage as a modern "fairytale" romance between a prince and a commoner.
Early life
Mary Donaldson was born the youngest of the four children of mathematician and Professor John Dalgleish Donaldson (born 5 September 1941) and his first wife, Henrietta "Etta" Clark Donaldson, née Horne, (12 May 1942 – 20 November 1997), who had emigrated from Scotland to Australia in 1963. Mary has three older siblings:
* Jane Alison Stephens (a pharmacist) (b. 26 December 1965);
* Patricia Anne Bailey (an intensive care nurse) (b. 16 March 1968);
* John Stuart Donaldson (a geologist, b. 9 July 1970).
Mary was born and raised in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
As a girl, Mary was heavily involved in sports and other extracurricular activities both at school and elsewhere. She studied piano, flute, clarinet and played basketball and hockey. Her early love of horses led her to ride competitively as a teenager, on her horse, Diana.
Education
Mary began primary school in Clear Lake City, now Houston, Harris County, Texas, while her father was working there. On returning to Hobart she attended Sandy Bay Infants School, Waimea Heights Primary School and then Taroona High School in Tasmania. She attended Waimea Heights Primary School from 1978 to 1982.
She studied at the University of Tasmania for five years. From 1989 to 1994 Mary completed a combined degree in Commerce and Law (BCom, LLB) at the University of Tasmania. Between 1994 and 1996, Mary attended a graduate program and qualified with certificates in advertising from The Advertising Federation of Australia (AFA) and direct marketing from the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA).
Languages
The Crown Princess's mother tongue is English and Danish is her second language. She studied French during her secondary education. In 2002, she briefly taught English in Paris.
Career
While studying in Tasmania, Mary reportedly had a joint business interest in a company called Kingcash, with Brent Annells, with whom she had a seven-year relationship in the 1990s.
In June 2000, Mary moved to a smaller Australian agency, Love Branding, working for a short time as the company's first account director. However, in the (Australian) spring of 2000 until December 2001, she became sales director and a member of the management team of Belle Property, a real estate firm specialising in luxury property. In the first half of 2002 Mary taught English at a business school in Paris but, on moving to Denmark permanently, she was employed by Microsoft Business Solutions (5 September 2002 – 24 September 2003) near Copenhagen as a project consultant for business development, communications and marketing.
Courtship and engagement
Mary Donaldson and Crown Prince Frederik became officially engaged on 8 October 2003.
Marriage
The Danish Folketing (parliament) passed a special law (Mary's Law) giving Mary Donaldson Danish citizenship upon her marriage, a standard procedure for new foreign members of the royal family. Mary was previously a dual-citizen of Australia and the United Kingdom. Formerly a Presbyterian, Mary became Lutheran. Shortly before entering the royal family, Mary signed a marriage agreement similar to those of her father-in-law and her former sister-in-law. The agreement was subsequently updated in late 2006. The details of these have never been made public, but it can be assumed that they deal with financial matters, royal status and custodial rights to the children in the event of a divorce.
The Crown Princess and her family currently reside at Frederik VIII's Palace, one of the four palaces that make up the Amalienborg Palace complex. From May 2004 to mid-December 2010, they resided at The Chancellery House, a side building at Fredensborg Palace.
Children
On 21 April 2007, Princess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe was born, at 3.350 kg and 50 cm long. She was christened at Fredensborg Palace chapel on 1 July 2007 and is third in line to the throne.
Royal life
Following the wedding, the couple embarked upon a summer cruise of mainland Denmark aboard the royal yacht Dannebrog, and then to Greenland and later the 2004 Athens Olympics. In 2005, during the celebrations for the 200th anniversary of Hans Christian Andersen, the royal family was involved in related events throughout the year. Frederik and Mary marked it in London, New York and in Australia, where Mary was made Honorary HCA Ambassador to Australia in the Utzon Room of the Sydney Opera House. In 2005 the royal family visited Faroe Islands.
Since becoming Crown Princess of Denmark, Mary has made a number of international visits and Frederik and Mary participated in the reburial ceremonies for Empress Maria Feodorovna in Denmark and Saint Petersburg.
Mary has played an active role in promoting an anti-bullying program based on an Australian model through the auspices of Denmark's Save the Children.
Mary is also involved in a new campaign to raise awareness and safe practices among Danes about skin cancer through The Danish Cancer Society.
Mary was voted Woman of the Year 2008 by a Danish magazine, Alt for damerne. The Princess donated her cash reward to charity.
She was interviewed by Parade Magazine (USA) and television programs of Andrew Denton (Australia) and USA Today (USA).
As a native English-speaker, Mary's main priority from the time of her engagement was to master the Danish language. Mary has acknowledged that this was a challenge for her in several interviews at the time of her engagement and marriage.
From : www.wikipedia.org
