Queen Margrethe: Open words about her father’s alcohol abuse

Queen Margrethe
She speaks for the first time about her father’s alcohol abuse

“This is really a topic that I don’t really feel like spreading about. But yes, my father had alcohol problems for a few years,” says Queen Margrethe, 81, in the new book “Undervejs – Erindringer 1940-1972 – Dronning Margrethe” (Eng. On the way – memories 1940-1972 – Queen Margrethe), which sheds light on her life up to her accession to the throne in 1972 and in which the queen speaks extensively.

Queen Margrethe remembers her childhood

Although it is an open secret in Denmark that King Frederik IX – known as the “Sailor King” – was fond of alcohol, Queen Margrethe has not yet commented on the rumors. And even in her new biography, she only addresses the subject hesitantly, but still reveals that she did not first notice her father’s illness as a child. “We lived in a pretty big house and we three sisters always ate dinner earlier than our parents and went to bed much earlier,” says the 81-year-old. “We didn’t talk about the alcohol problem until years later. In retrospect, I can see that there was something at some point, but I have no precise memory of it. That is probably also because Papa got back on track sometime in the years 1949-1950 came.”

Queen Margrethe also reveals that her mother, Queen Ingrid, and her father’s two friends, Admiral Vedel and Prince Axel, were a huge support for her father. It was they who made him “pull himself together” in the end. After that, her father never touched a drop of alcohol.

Corona pandemic made new book possible

Because the Danish queen suddenly had more time during the corona pandemic, she answered questions and answers for 37 hours to author Tom Buk-Swienty for his new book “Undervejs – Erindringer 1940-1972 – Dronning Margrethe”. The work was published by the Danish publisher “Politikens Forlag” on October 26, 2021 on the occasion of Queen Margrethe’s 50th anniversary of the throne.

Source used: Dana Press

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