Last month, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark lost the love of her life. But who was the raffish, unconventional, at once charming and grouchy, Prince Henrik?
During his 51-year marriage to Denmark’s Queen Margrethe, Prince Henrik, a free-spirited French aristocrat, managed to baffle, amuse, intrigue and infuriate his adopted country. It was only with his death in mid-February, aged 83, that the Danes finally acknowledged their fondness for him. Tens of thousands took to the streets, and the simple funeral he insisted upon brought the country to a standstill. Apparently taken aback by the scale of the mourning, TV pundits took to asking if they perhaps had Henrik all wrong.
Not that he was an easy man to make sense of. Born in south-western France as Henri de Laborde de Monpezat, he spent much of his early life in Vietnam, where his father, André, an autocratic and slightly cranky count, owned rice and tea plantations. The experience left Henrik with a lifelong passion for Indochinese art, culture – and women, whose “company”, as he delicately puts it in his memoirs, he craftily contrived to charge to the family business accounts.
With the end of the colonial era in the mid-1950s, the Monpezats were forced to return to France. Henri harboured plans to become a classical pianist, but his father, rattled by the loss of his lucrative Vietnamese holdings, ruled that the family could afford no more risky ventures, and enrolled his son in a law course at the Sorbonne in Paris. After three years of military service in Algeria, he joined the diplomatic corps, and in 1964 was handed a junior posting to the French embassy in London.
Newly arrived in town, too, was Margrethe, a 23-year-old postgraduate student at the London School of Economics. They first met at a dinner party in Chelsea, hosted by the raffish gay socialite, Nicholas Eden, son of former British Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Henri appears to have been rather more impressed by Margrethe than she was by him.
Denne historien er fra April 2018-utgaven av Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra April 2018-utgaven av Australian Women’s Weekly NZ.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
PRETTY WOMAN
Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
The unseen Rovals
Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.
Great read
In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.
Winter dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.