Why Kate will be watching ‘glum’ Queen Mary closer than most

A few months after Mary Donaldson met a handsome young Danish man in a bar in Sydney, she travelled secretly to his homeland so the pair could spend New Year’s Eve together. Until then the advertising executive turned real estate agent had mainly seen her boyfriend wearing shorts and a T-shirt, so on New Year’s Day when he announced he needed to get dressed for a special dinner, she thought little of it.

But as Mary would later recount to guests at her husband Frederik’s 50th birthday, she couldn’t believe her eyes when her casual, sports-loving boyfriend returned in full princely regalia. “If I had known Danish at the time,” she told the audience, “I would probably have thought to myself aij, hvor har jeg scoret over evne.” The  translation: “Wow, I’ve really scored above my league.”

But this week, X years later as that Aussie girl begins her new role as Queen Mary of Denmark, it’s more evident than ever that just like the Princess of Wales, she has come into her own and is exactly where she deserves to be.