ROYAL REBEL CHRISTIAN TELLS MARY 'I'M NOT READY TO RULE'

Desperate to just be a teen, the prince has made a shock decision

Denmark's Prince Christian has taken the dramatic step of refusing his royal allowance when he turns 18 in October, choosing instead to delay it until he's 21, when he will undertake full royal duties - a move that's sparking fears there is more to the story than just wanting to focus on school.

The "fiercely independent" teen - who begins his final year of high school next month at Ordrup Gymnasium - has already skirted controversy in recent years and Woman's Day hears his latest decision to shun his duties has come as a "shock" to the Danish royal family.

MARY UNDER FIRE

Caught in the middle, of course, is Christian's Aussie mum, Crown Princess Mary, 51, who sources say is "desperately playing down the ramifications of his decision" to buck royal protocol.

"This has put Mary in the firing line again for her unorthodox approach to raising her children," says a palace insider.

"Never has a prince of Denmark attended nursery school, let alone a public state school, before Christian and his siblings, so there's a growing concern that it may have been a mistake." The prince courted controversy in September last year, when a video of him, aged 16, spraying Champagne over his under-aged friends on a ski trip went viral.