Prince Joachim will be ruthlessly exiled to America starting this summer

Shortly after QEII passed away, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe announced that she was stripping the royal titles and royal styles from four of her grandchildren. Those four grandchildren are all the children of Prince Joachim, Margrethe’s second son, the “spare” to Crown Prince Frederik. Prince Joachim and his second wife Princess Marie were torn up about the kids’ demotions but Margrethe didn’t budge (although she did apologize). What was also interesting about all of the Danish royal mess was that Joachim and Marie had already been pseudo-exiled for years. 2023 will be their fifth year living in France full-time, where Joachim has a military position attached to the Danish embassy. Just two months after Margrethe stripped Joachim’s kids of their titles, it was announced that Joachim and Marie would eventually be shipped off to America. Well, it’s really happening:

Following Queen Margrethe II of Denmark’s decision to strip four of her grandchildren, the children of her second son, Prince Joachim, of their prince and princess titles, the Royal Household has announced that Joachim and his family are moving to the US.

An announcement on the official Kongehuset website, also posted on social media, reveals: ‘On 1 September 2023, His Royal Highness Prince Joachim begins a new position under the Ministry of Defence as defence industry attaché at the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, D.C., where The Prince, as Denmark’s representative, will take part in strengthening the defence industrial cooperation with the USA and Canada in the coming years.

‘Four years ago, Prince Joachim and Princess Marie, together with the couple’s two children, moved to France. The reason was that Prince Joachim began France’s highest-ranking military education course as a supplement to The Prince’s longtime engagement in The Defence. After the education concluded, both The Prince and The Princess were affiliated with the Embassy of Denmark in Paris as defence attaché and Special Cultural Representative, respectively.

‘Prince Joachim and the family will move to Washington, D.C. during the summer of 2023.’

While the statement stresses Joachim’s ongoing role in the Royal Household and his function as an official representative for his country overseas, it comes in the wake of the prince openly speaking of the ‘hurt’ caused by his mother’s decision.

[From Tatler]

I said before that I actually admired Margrethe for knowing HOW to exile the spare. This isn’t some messy argument about who represents the crown and what constitutes a working royal or whatever. This isn’t a repeat of Sussexit debacle. This is Margrethe being coldly and ruthlessly efficient in getting the spare as far away from Denmark as possible, but also keeping him on the leash. Joachim’s appointments in France and now America are high-level, prestigious, befitting a prince. But it’s still a ruthless exile. And y’all know Princess Marie is going to HATE Washington.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid and Cover Images.

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41 Responses to “Prince Joachim will be ruthlessly exiled to America starting this summer”

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  1. Grace says:

    Why would Marie hate Washington? Finding something meaningful to do for Joachim has been quite a challenge since he decided to quit farming at Schackenborg. I think his parents didn’t guess how radically the world would change and that he should actually do something and not just enjoy the Royal perks. To be honest it’s not likely that a person of his age and with his non-existent work experience could find a job to finance the lifestyle he’s used to unless it was more or less tailored for him, and ithis option is certainly better than have a job just created for him out of nothing in Denmark.

    • Suze says:

      Probably because DC (as lovely as it is) doesn’t compare to Paris. I think the kids will enjoy it – lots of cultural stuff – museums, theaters, concert venues, an amazing variety of global cuisines, sports teams – but Marie will probably feel like it is very small and provincial compared to Paris.

      Then again, maybe she’ll love it! Americans aren’t going to pay much attention to them, so they’ll likely have more freedom of movement than they did in Paris or Denmark.

      • Snuffles says:

        Hey man, DC has a LOT going for it. Political power, arts and culture, beautiful architecture, diversity, you name it. Just like every major city, there are definitely “hood” parts that a royal wouldn’t like much, but it’s a beautiful city. And a hop skip and a jump from Maryland and Virginia who also have a lot going for them.

        PS. I guess I’ll need to keep an eye out for royalty the next time I’m out and about. 😜

      • Suze says:

        I’m not sure why everyone thinks I’m insulting DC, I’m not. I’m from here! I can just imagine why moving here from Paris would be a shock.

    • Carrot says:

      I’d like to imagine they do scandi-pop M&J’s Danish Sandwiches shops

    • The Recluse says:

      D.C. has its issues like any other city, but it is perhaps the only human scaled major city left in the country. It isn’t dominated by skyscrapers. It has parks, wildlife, and trees. Everyone can go outside and have a view of blue sky and trees. It’s really nice. It has an international community and nice architecture as well as plenty of culture. I wish I could move back to that area, but I can’t afford it.
      You’re also a short distance from NYC, relatively speaking.
      So don’t diss it.

      • Suze says:

        I’m not dissing DC, I’m from the DMV and I love it here! But I can imagine that it would be a shock to move to from Paris.

  2. Seraphina says:

    For Marie, it must sting to have married into royalty only to be sent to the US where the prestige of her status will not be the same in the US and in Denmark.
    I wonder which royal houses will survive as the years pass by.

    • BayTampaBay says:

      DC is the center of power. If you want to be at the center of power, you want to be in DC.

      Lots of Europeans in DC. Marie will have more social prestige and status in DC than she will have time to execute.

  3. notasugarhere says:

    I can’t really see her hating it. Not as enjoyable as Paris or the vineyard in France though. Some upscale home in suburbs, seeing if she can do her food waste or HIV/AIDS charity work, kids at an international school. Figuring out things to do with the Danish and French embassies if they want her to. iirc Criminal Cristina of Spain enjoyed living in the DC area for several years, mostly quietly, while they were staving off Inaki’s criminal investigation.

    • BayTampaBay says:

      If a person wants to be around power then DC is the place to be.

      There are plenty of Europeans in DC who will view her status through a European contentinential kaleidoscope. Marie’s status as HRH will give her plenty of prestige.

      • notasugarhere says:

        Yes. From some comments she’s made, it sounds like *if* she wanted to do more work she wasn’t allowed to. That they were told what they could and could not do, etc. If she wants a higher profile, big if, than she could have that in DC. She can move easily in those circles, speaks five languages, she’s comfortable in the role.

        I still say the title stripping and moving of Joachim/Marie is a pre-cursor to shoving more than one of Fred&Mary’s kids onto the royal dole. After they promised only Christian would be a working royal and live off taxpayer money. That one RR who outed that scheme? IMO she’ll be proven right. Shady move from the DRF.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Fun Factoid: Danish Royal Civil List

        On 16 September 2004, Alexandra and Joachim announced their separation and eventual intention to divorce. It would be the first in the Royal Family since 1846. The Folketing decided to put Alexandra on the civil list for life, independent of her possible future remarriage. Alexandra’s payments of her new yearly allowance of 2.1m kroner (US$330,000) started retroactively from 1 October 2004. The couple divorced on 8 April 2005.

        On 23 June 2017, she announced that she would renounce her entitlement to the Danish civil list in July 2020, coinciding with the 18th birthday of Prince Felix.

      • notasugarhere says:

        QMII, being wily, got the taxpayers to pay Alexandra’s alimony. Alexandra didn’t willingly give it up when their younger son turned 18, she gave it up after a long period of public criticism. That’s why it was made known that Joachim had signed half the title to his new Copenhagen home over to Marie. It would be for her settlement should they divorce.

        Look how long QMII made them wait because she didn’t want a divorce on the DRF PR sheet. Felix was the band-aid baby in summer 2002. Not allowed to publicly separate until four months after Fred & Mary got married in 2004.

  4. BayTampaBay says:

    What is the dirt on the reason for Joachim’s divorce from his fist wife.Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg?

    I read up on Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg this morning and seems to me to be very much a woman of substance or even a woman of very high substance?

    If anyone has some tea, please pour it.

    • notasugarhere says:

      They married quickly, were over quickly. Second son was a band-aid baby while they were basically already over. She moved on to her second husband long before the official separation was announced. Margrethe refused to let them separate or divorce until after Fred got married.

      I know, some people like to claim Joachim was horrible to Alexandra but I don’t buy it. Alexandra loves the attention, loved being royal. It was just a whirlwind romance that didn’t last. She’s happily co-parenting in a blended family, never shows any dislike or discomfort around Joachim. She and Marie are friends too.

      Two things I miss about Alex as a working royal. 1) the Alexandrine Drop Tiara and 2) her crazy late 90s princess dresses. Those were amazing and OTT.

    • Mary says:

      The only dirt I heard was that Alexandra was cheating on Joachim and that he was pretty torn up about it. However, gossip about the Danish Royals flies fast and furious so I’m not sure I heard the correct version!

    • SummerMoomin says:

      I’ve read so much gossip about that divorce, but I’m not sure if any of it is true. I side eye their marriage in the first place because he was a 25 year old fresh from university and military training doing an internship at Maersk in Hong Kong and she was an accomplished 30 year old business executive. It’s a power imbalance, and she seems to like them young, when she dumped Joachim after ten years, she dumped him for another 25 year old.

      First off, I’ve heard the divorce was all her idea, he was miserable in their marriage but didn’t want to get divorced, because it was the first divorce in the DRF since the 19th century, she is said to have held information over him that made him give her the divorce. As someone else said, they weren’t allowed to get divorced until Fred married, but they divorced within months of Fred’s marriage. She got an extremely generous divorce settlement, and all the news released at the time made out like the divorce was entirely Joachim’s fault. This was reevaluated a bit later when it became clear she had been cheating on Joachim, and then when her second marriage also ended in divorce, with all the news making out like it was her second husband’s fault. Of course there were rumors that her second son wasn’t Joachim’s but they are ridiculous as he looks like a nice mix of both Joachim and Fred and is clearly Joachim’s.

      At the same time it’s clear that Joachim was also cheating on her, and in fact seems to have met his current wife within months of his second son being born. So they are both at fault. Their marriage reportedly fell apart very quickly after the wedding and she, a big city girl, hated living in the country at his estate and spent all her time in their apartment in Amelienborg palace.

      As I say, this is all rumor and gossip and may not be true at all, but if you want more scurrilous gossip about the DRF there is an entertaining ebook out there, but I will have to look up the title, it’s something like “ (Bunch of numbers) Copenhagen”

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Is it just my eyes or is Joachim almost the ‘spittin’ image” of QMII?

      • SueBarbri33 says:

        I would LOVE to read a book about the Danish Royals. Let me know the title!

      • SummerMoomin says:

        Bay, I agree with you absolutely, he looks like a male Margrethe!

        Sue, the book is called 1015 Copenhagen K by Trine Villeman. I warn you I’ve read a lot of people challenging assertions made in this book, so don’t go into it sure that you are getting 100% The Truth, but it is very entertaining. And in English!

  5. JanetDR says:

    I predict that they will enjoy themselves here. It’s not a big deal to get to NYC from DC (unlike, say, Montecito to NYC) supposing that they want a change.

  6. usavgjoe says:

    All the Royal houses of Britain and Europe are on borrowed time and their doomsday clock is at 30 seconds till midnight.

  7. Pumpkin (Was Sofia) says:

    I don’t think this is an exile. Joachim needs a job as well as a life outside the royal court so he (or his mother/courtiers) have found one for him. It’s not the first job out of Denmark anyways (although yes Denmark and France are a lot closer than France and DC).

    • Okay says:

      Any royal instructed to live in another county is living in exile. H&M actually are not living in exile because the crown didn’t get to dictate if they could leave or not and chose what country they had to live in. That is what William wanted more than air to say he told him to live there but we all know he didn’t. I do feel this situation is much more classy, not punitive but yes ruthless in the execution.

      • Iz_Q Quintana says:

        The late King of Greece lived in exile, where he and his family were not allowed to return to Greece. It is not exile when you can return to your country without issues or problems.

      • Pumpkin (Was Sofia) says:

        Not at all. Exile to me is being cut off completely from your homeland and not being allowed to come back at all under any circumstances. This does not sound like the case for Joachim. He’s gotten another job in another country. Millions of people (who aren’t royal) get jobs in other countries and move.

      • okayyy says:

        He was exiled. Its the very definition of exile. If anything I was wrong about Harry not also being exiled.

        exile
        1 of 2
        noun
        ex·​ile ˈeg-ˌzī(-ə)l ˈek-ˌsī(-ə)l
        Synonyms of exile
        1
        a
        : the state or a period of forced absence from one’s country or home
        b
        : the state or a period of voluntary absence from one’s country or home
        2
        : a person who is in exile
        exilic
        eg-ˈzi-lik
        adjective
        exile

        2 of 2
        verb
        exiled; exiling
        transitive verb

        : to expel from one’s own country or home

  8. HeyKay says:

    What is the ruthlessly exiled to America nonsense?
    We are fine here. Not great, could be better but ya know, OK.

    He is still going to be wealthy isn’t he?
    Has he pissed away all his wealth and must now move to US to work 65 hours a week at minimum wage? No. Wealthy!

    Royals are running out of time, fine by me.

    • Mandy says:

      Exactly heykay! All these poor, rich royals are still living like kings compared to most Americans. I have zero sympathy for anyone who lives this life of luxury. You don’t deserve to rule a country simply because of who your parents are. They should be happy no one has brought out the guillotine yet and taken their tax dollars back.

  9. aquarius64 says:

    Marie took some shots at Meghan for her coping with the royal fishbowl and basically told her to suck it up. Ironic that Marie’s children lost their princely titles on Jan. 1 and Meghan’s children had their princely titles publicly recognized on Mar.
    9. Both couples fought the respective sovereigns and the Danish one won.

  10. Brassy Rebel says:

    Margrethe is bailing out the ocean with a teaspoon. Monarchy remains an anachronism whether Joachim is in Denmark or DC.

  11. AC says:

    I’ve read a little about the Danish royal family before and it’s a bit of a mess, I think There’s some really hard feelings there. I thought they’re already exiled in France now they’re going to the US. Also I didn’t know that Princess Madeleine , the youngest daughter to the king and queen of Sweden, lived in Florida since 2018 with her husband and kids (although returning to Sweden in a couple months). Just shows how Americans really , like really, don’t care . To be honest, these royal families prestige/influence are getting more and more obsoleted through time. Gen Zers prob know who Addison Rae is and can’t even name a member of a European royal family(except maybe Harry and Meghan 😀)

    • Iz_Q says:

      The Danish Royals are not a mess.

      A lot of assumptions in these comments considering the Danish royals are never covered here. Yet, all of a sudden everyone either has tea or wants to know tea.

  12. ML says:

    Do I see Joachim and Marie being sent far away? Yes. Exiled? No. Their choice if they want a high status job in another country of the queen’s choice, or if they want to start out on their own.
    As someone who lives in another country: they may hate it in Washington DC, and that’s fine. One place, even in your own country, is not another place. Probably it will depend on J&M’s mindset, who they meet and hang out with, if they feel they can do a decent “job” and if they feel respected or whatever.
    Some Europeans I know who live or have lived in the US love it, others don’t. There are cultural differences and some people have an easier time than others. Some Europeans feel like everything is “new” (keeping in mind 150 years old = new) and makes them feel less connected. Some love convenience and a more relaxed society.

  13. crazyoldlady says:

    tiny tiny sad violin not working today

  14. Well Wisher says:

    This ‘exile was announced in 2022.

  15. Megs283 says:

    I, for one, would love to be exiled to DC and most likely live among Embassy Row.

  16. Rea says:

    This would explain Nikolai’s shady post about love with a finger sign on it. He is probably making reference that is he in a piece of mind with what’s going on since he is a successful model.

  17. Unsympathetic says:

    Ruthlessly exiled to a house in Georgetown and presumably a nearly unlivable space in the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

  18. jgerber says:

    Yes to what everyone is saying, about the good life he’ll live, but why does he have to leave Denmark at all?