Is this the Harry and Meghan effect? Or the frustration of always having to come second to his brother, the heir to the crown? Still, Prince Joachim, the youngest of the Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II, let his anger explode in broad daylight after his mother decided to withdraw their princely titles from her four children.
A coup that reveals the flaws of a monarchy that was said to be solid, at a time when Margrethe II, dean of European monarchs and last queen of the world still alive, celebrates her golden jubilee.
Since January 2019, Prince Joachim, 53, has lived in Paris with his second wife, of French origin, Princess Marie, and their two children, Prince Henrik, 13, and Princess Athena, 10. Military attaché at the Danish embassy in Paris, he gave his first interview there, on September 29, to the Danish tabloid Extra Magazine.
The day before, in Copenhagen, the royal palace had issued a brief press release announcing that from 1is January 2023 four of the Queen’s grandchildren, born Princes and Princess of Denmark, would be demoted to Counts and Countess of Monpezat – the surname of their paternal grandfather, Henri de Laborde de Monpezathusband of Margrethe II, born in Talence, Gironde, in 1934, and died in 2018.
Decision experienced as hurtful
“It’s never funny to see your children being mistreated like that, especially since they don’t understand what is happening to them,” says Prince Joachim. With a broken face, he says the plan drawn up in May called for his children to keep their titles until they were 25e anniversary. “Athena will be 11 in January”, he lets go. Two days later, while he is walking his dog in Parc Monceau, Prince Joachim does it again. To tabloid reporters B.T., he states that he has not spoken to his mother since her announcement.
Usually in the background, Princess Marie recognizes that her husband’s relationship with her brother Crown Prince Frederik and his wife, Mary, of Australian origin, is “complicated to say the least”. And to add: “We always told our children that they should be independent and that they would not get [une enveloppe financière], but it’s another thing to remove a title”, she said, before slipping: “I don’t think it’s modern to hurt children. »
In her press release published on September 28, the queen explained that she wanted ” allow [à ses petits-enfants] to lead their own lives better, without being restricted by the special considerations and duties that formal affiliation to the Royal House of Denmark, as an institution, entails”.
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