Just weeks after Queen Elizabeth’s passing in 2022, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe announced that she was removing the royal styling from Prince Joachim’s four children. Joachim was “the spare” to his older brother, Frederik, who is now king. Margrethe clearly wanted to do some housekeeping for her own royal house in the wake of QEII’s death, and that housekeeping involved further exiling her second son and ensuring that her heir’s children were the only ones of that generation with royal styling. All hell broke loose, and Joachim was clearly hurt, and he gave several public statements about his mother’s decision. Margrethe ended up apologizing, but she didn’t alter any of her decisions. In early 2024, she ended up abdicating, and Joachim came to the abdication ceremony and his brother’s “coronation.” Joachim’s wife and children did not attend any of that. Joachim is also about two years into a three-year post as a military attache to the Danish embassy in Washington, DC. His post will be over next summer. Well, Joachim has given a new interview about his future and his family’s future.
Prince Joachim of Denmark opened up in a rare interview shared on June 6, where he directly addressed what the future might look like for his family. Prince Joachim, 55, and his wife Princess Marie moved from France to Washington, D.C. with their two children in the summer of 2023 as he took on a three-year job with the Danish Embassy under the Ministry of Defense. It marked a fresh start after Queen Margrethe shockingly stripped his four kids of the prince and princess titles for “future proofing” of the monarchy at the start of the year, a move that made waves and Joachim criticized.
In conversation with TV2, Prince Joachim said, “We have a desire to come home. But we also do not rule out the possibility of staying abroad. Now we have to see. For now, it is on our radar, when the post here stops, we will return home.”
King Frederik’s younger brother also gave a personal update on how his family is doing lately. Prince Joachim is a father of four, and shares sons Nikolai, 25, and Felix, 22, with his first wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg. Following their split, he remarried in 2008 to Princess Marie, and they went on to welcome two children — son Henrik, 16, and daughter Athena, 13 — who moved to the U.S. with them.
“We are each busy in our own way. The kids are at school, where they enjoy being challenged and have an ever-growing social circle, and I have my job. We are our little nuclear family and enjoy it, and we make sure as much as possible that we also have time for each other,” Joachim said. “That it doesn’t always get in the way of work, school and homework.”
However, the royal acknowledged that there’s a different rhythm when they’re in Europe.
“Overall, we can all feel it, and we can also feel it in the children, that it is at home in Denmark that we have our largest social base. We can’t travel back and forth, after all, there is a six-hour time difference and an entire ocean in between,” he told TV2. “We take our time when we are home and enjoy it to the fullest. Perhaps that is the band-aid for being far away from home.”
“For now, it is on our radar, when the post here stops, we will return home.” I actually appreciate the fact that Joachim isn’t afraid of speaking out and giving interviews and letting people know where he stands. It will be that much harder for his brother to screw him over privately now – if Frederik wants Joachim to stay abroad, Fred’s got to know that Joachim will march straight over to the nearest newspaper and speak his mind. The thing is, I don’t get the impression that Frederik and Joachim’s relationship was ever that toxic. I actually wonder if Frederik might actually want his brother to come back to Denmark? We’ll see.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- Confirmation of Count Henrik at the Danish Church in Paris Featuring: Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Denmark with Count Nikolai of Monpezat, Count Felix of Monpezat, Countess Athena of Monpezat and Count Henrik of Monpezat Where: Paris, France When: 18 May 2023 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Prince Christian of Denmark gala dinner to celebrate his 18th birthday at Christiansborg Palace Featuring: Prince Joachim, Princess Marie of Denmark Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 15 Oct 2023 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- King Frederik X of Denmark, the new king of Denmark after abdication by his mother Queen Margrethe, together with Queen Margrethe, Prince Joachim and Princess Benedikte of Denmark attending a meeting in the Chamber and take part in a following reception in the former Upper Chamber at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. Featuring: King Frederik X of Denmark, the new king of Denmark after abdication by his mother Queen Margrethe, together with Queen Margrethe, Prince Joachim and Princess Benedikte of Denmark Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 15 Jan 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- King Frederik X of Denmark, the new king of Denmark after abdication by his mother Queen Margrethe, Prince Joachim of Denmark attending a meeting in the Chamber and take part in a following reception in the former Upper Chamber at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. Featuring: King Frederik X of Denmark, the new king of Denmark, Prince Joachim of Denmark Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 15 Jan 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Queen Margrethe, Prince Joachim and Princess Benedikte of Denmark attending a meeting in the Chamber and take part in a following reception in the former Upper Chamber at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. Featuring: Queen Margrethe, Prince Joachim and Princess Benedikte of Denmark Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 15 Jan 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Prince Joachim of Denmark attending a meeting in the Chamber and take part in a following reception in the former Upper Chamber at the Danish Parliament in Copenhagen. Featuring: Prince Joachim of Denmark Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 15 Jan 2024 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Annual New Year’s dinner and table for the government, the Speaker of the Danish Parliament, representatives of official Denmark and the Court at Christian VII’s Palace at Amalienborg Featuring: Prince Joachim, Princess Marie Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 01 Jan 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Sitting Volleyball in Vancouver Convention Centre during Invictus Game Featuring: Prince Joachim, Princess Marie Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 15 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Sitting Volleyball in Vancouver Convention Centre during Invictus Game Featuring: Prince Harry, Prince Joachim, Princess Marie Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 15 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
I thought Joachim and his family were living in France on some sort of official posting before they went to the US? After having sold their property in Denmark, which had some controversy? I assume he’ll get another European job.
The Danish establishment will get him another job. They got him the job in France and the one in the US. And he still gets his publically funded annual allowance.
Do you think it will be in Denmark though? He seems to be telegraphing a desire to come home.
If he wants to return to the DK then I think they will find something for him here.
That’ll be interesting. And thank you for all the BG. It’s hard to tell what things are like from the outside when you don’t know the local papers or writers. I recently met a fairly liberal man from the film industry who is married to a Danish woman with 2 kids. They live in NJ now but schooled their kids in Denmark during covid. And he had a pretty positive feeling on the royals there.
The royals are very popular here. Queen Margrethe has been beloved for decades and both Frederik and Mary are very popular. Fred has always been pretty easy-going and connects quickly with all sorts of people, and Mary has been very consistent in her work.
The Danish royals have also been very good with presenting themselves through documentaries (in one Queen Margrethe called herself Aunty Queen in a drily funny way) about fx the royal properties, the family history etc. It helps that they generally have interesting personalities and charisma. They also televise big events like weddings, christenings, etc. For the weddings they also televise the speeches and the first dance, the bridal waltz. They are very good at giving the public a glimpse of themselves that comes across as authentic. That is the major problem with the BRF – they come across as fake and inauthentic because they are super insulated from ordinary folk. There is not such immense distance in Denmark. Mary and Fred’s children went to state school until the equivalent of high school. You can absolutely see them on the street or in the theatre.
The popularity of the DRF was built on the canny instincts of the late Queen Ingrid. When she married the then Crown Prince Frederik, the monarchy was not as popular as it is now. The King was still very unpopular after meddling in politics in 1920 and almost getting deposed. She was very good at PR and marketing in an age before this was common, making the family more visible and closer to the population. During the occupation, she encouraged the KIng to continue riding the streets of Copenhagen every day, which ended up making him a national symbol in a very difficult time. Her influence was great, not just in Denmark but also in Sweden where she personally mentored the newly wed Queen Silvia. The DRF has very much continued in the mold that Ingrid was crucial in developing. Ingrid was hugely respected and beloved in Denmark. She was the first non-Glûcksburg to be named regent when the monarch is abroad. Queen Mary is the second to be given that honour and responsibility, which speaks to how respected she is.
It will be interesting to see how things will evolve because the CP Christian is an adult now, and the Princess Isabella just turned 18 – and they are now fair game to the tabloids. I think there is less leeway for them to make mistakes because everything is documented in the age of social media.
I think, after two consecutive postings abroad, that it’s likely he’ll be sent back to Denmark.
Eh I don’t blame his mothers. They don’t all need to have royal stylings. Same thing I said for the UK and others too.
I think it’s the timing that irked Joachim & Marie. Their kids would lose the Royal styling when they come to age of 25. The strip of Royal styling earlier than they expected might not impact (emotionally) so much to the elder 2 children, but for the younger 2, who knew? Also, there was some communication issue between Joachim & his mother before the announcement, and that’s what Margrethe apologized for, the handling of the whole thing, not the decision itself.
No Monachy should exist in the current world.
I wonder if it’s less “we want to go to Denmark” and more “we are getting the hell out of the current dumpster fire that is the US right now, don’t even think of extending my posting”? I mean, I’m sure there are many layers, but if it were me, that would be the topmost layer. Especially if I had kids.
I understand that. I wonder what the environment is like in Washington’s diplomatic circles is currently.
I think it’s much more the latter- he doesn’t want to end up in a torture prison in El Salvador!
No, who’s President has no bearing on his posting in the US. A tour of duty is in the foreign service is three years so after this year he was going to be leaving the US regardless of who the President is.
All the turburlence surrounding Joachim is fairly recent and stems from the time that he sold his agricultural estate that he was gifted and which he ran for decades. Now he suddenly did not have a job and he seems to be a person who needs and wants to have something to do. The problem is that there is no appetite for an extended, publically funded royal family. And it seemed that he didn’t really know what to do other than royal “work” now that he no longer had a day job as a farmer. So he was accepted into a super prestigious French military academy on his own military merits according to the media (who knows whether that is true or not). Then he was given a job as a military attache in Paris and later a job in Washington. Those are positions that he got because of his royal connections. He is qualified but he did not have to compete for these jobs.
When he and his family moved to France, there was criticism in Danish media because he had not applied to Parliament to get permission to take his publicy funded allowance abroad. It was a technicality but he had a meltdown in the press that came across as SUPER entitled to the Danish public. It was not just about his hints about family strife but also about how he felt he should not be criticised at all because, as his wife said: “He loves Denmark”! It basically came across as an entitled hissy fit because he was criticised for not doing administrative due diligence. The big issue in the whole affair is that Joachim is desperate to retain his public allowance despite his very sizeable personal fortune – and that is partially why he wants to do more royal duties because, like I said, the Danish public is not keen on funding anymore royals than the Monarch and the immediate heir. The royal household has been quite constant in their messaging that of Mary and Fred’s children only CP Christian will receive public funding as adults.
Joachim is not popular in Denmark, partly because he has always come across as very entitled in contrast to his more relaxed brother. There may be some social awkwardness as well. He comes across as a bit like his father who was very bitter that he never became KIng when his wife became Monarch,
The whole titles issue was bungled by Margrethe II and her office. It also needs to be put into a context that non-Danes do not know about. Traditionally, Danish royals lost their royal titles when they married commoners. It was not really an issue until recent times because Margrethe and her sister all married aristocrats and other royals. Margrethe married a French count, her sister Benedikte married a German Prince and her sister Anne-Marie married the KIng of Greece. One of their first cousins lost his title when he married a commoner (iCount Ingolf who would have become King if the Law of Succession had not been changed). Ingolf’s sister never married and thus retained her Princess title.
Now, both of Margrethe’s sons married commoners because they are related to all other Europan royals. They did not loose their titles as Frederik was Crown Prince at his marriage. Joachim did not loose his title either. However, it has always been understood that Joachim’s children would not retain their royal titles forever. But them loosing their royal titles due to future marriage to commoners would be a hypocritical practice since their father did not loose his royal title for doing the same. So there was a plan for them to loose their royal titles at 25. But Joachim had fought that behind the scenes and after 6 months of negotiations I think Margrethe just lost her patience. It was clumsily done with a lack of communication with her grand-children that caused a lot of hurt but she apologized publically.
I understand that Joachim and Marie (and his ex-wife) were upset but I find it hard to respect them when they went to the absolute scummiest tabloid in Denmark. A tabloid that has committed so many illegalities that a lot of people think it should be shuttered. It is on the part with weekly News of the World. It also brings to mind the thirst way Marie executed her royal girlfriend roll-out back in the day. She did an interview and photocall in another tabloid. It was very organized, very thirsty and not co-ordinated with the royal household – and it did not go down well with the public. She quickly pivoted and these antics was written off as an honest mistake. I thought that as wel, untill they went to Se and Hør.
Thank you ArtHistorian. It is always a delight to read your posts.
I can definitely see wanting to raise their kids in Denmark —especially during their teen years, as they develop their independence and more adult identities. I think Prince Joachim is being very, appropriately, diplomatic here. DC and the US might not feel like a plum post, especially for someone with kids, when you’re used to living in much safer countries.