Queen Margrethe
Revealed! Not all family members knew about her abdication
© Dana Press
Queen Margrethe abdicated as Queen of Denmark on February 14, 2024. A step that she had announced in a speech just a few days earlier. As is now known, even family members knew nothing about the monarch’s historic decision.
Queen Margrethe’s abdication shocked Princess Nathalie
Only those close to the Queen were informed of the monarch’s plans. Nathalie Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg had previously only received a tip from her mother. “My mother just said to us, ‘You have to watch the New Year’s speech’ and ‘it’s good.’ I didn’t think it was strange and didn’t think anything of it. And then this announcement came. I have to say, I was shocked,” the 48-year-old admits to the Danish medium.
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The daughter of Princess Benedikte, 79, and Richard Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, †82, can understand the decision and admires the retiring monarch. “She probably thought about her decision carefully. Now she can enjoy passing the scepter to King Frederik and Queen Mary […]. I’m 100% sure they’ll do really well. These are new times, we live in the 21st century,” said Princess Nathalie.
Count Ingolf von Rosenborg learned of the queen’s decision just a few hours earlier
Nathalie, who made a name for herself as a dressage rider and horse breeder, is not the only family member who has commented on Queen Margrethe’s abdication to Billed Bladet. Count Ingolf von Rosenborg, 84, also revealed in a conversation with the magazine when he found out about the planned change of throne. “I was informed three hours in advance, so we didn’t have to watch it on television,” said the count. His wife Countess Sussie, 73, added in the interview: “Yes, we would have been shocked if we had found out about it on television.”
A shock that Nathalie Princess of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg was not prepared for. She doesn’t seem to take offense at Queen Margrethe. She asserts that she respects the decision and looks forward to the modern reign of King Frederik and Queen Mary, 52.
Sources used: billedbladet.dk, nathaliewittgenstein.com