Their year romance has been dubbed a 'real-life fairytale' - yet Princess Mary and Prince Frederik's relationship made headlines yesterday for less glowing reasons. Frederik, 55, the heir to the Danish throne, was photographed with reality star Genoveva Casanova, 47, in Madrid last week where they attended an exhibition of the works of Pablo Picasso, without his wife of 19 years.
Publication of the pictures in Spanish magazine Lecturas led the divorcee Mexican socialite to issue a statement 'categorically' denying any suggestion the pair are romantically involved, branding it 'malicious' and untrue, according to Hola! The news broke amid a packed schedule of events for the royal couple during the state visit King Felipe of Spain and his wife Queen Letizia , and will no doubt have been viewed as an unwelcome distraction by Mary, who has scarcely put a foot wrong in her almost two decades as a working royal.
Mary Donaldson, was a year-old advertising executive when she first met Frederik in a packed city pub, the Slip Inn, in Sydney 23 years ago. She had no idea the handsome European tourist she had been chatting to for hours was actually Crown Prince Frederik , future king of Denmark. Now, married for 19 years and proud parents to four children, Mary is poised to become the world's first Australian-born queen and has won her adopted country over by her dedication to royal duty and her fluency in the language.
Then: A fresh-faced Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark drapes his arm around Tasmanian advertising executive Mary Donaldson in a photo believed to be taken shortly after their first meeting in After the pub encounter, then year-old Fred - who was in Australia to support Denmark's sailing team at the Olympics - asked Mary for her phone number and a romance blossomed.
I didn't know he was the prince of Denmark. Half an hour later someone came up to me and said, "Do you know who these people are"? They maintained a long-distance relationship for a year, with Frederik making secret trips Down Under before Mary moved to Denmark to study Danish language at Copenhagen's Studieskolen in In early , Frederik's mother Queen Margrethe publicly acknowledged the relationship and the couple announced their engagement at Amalienborg Castle later that year on October 8.
