If you thought the royal family of the United Kingdom was dealing with a lot with their family rifts and the death of their figurehead—well, Denmark’s Royal Family is going through some drama.
Queen Margrethe, the 82-year-old monarch who just celebrated fifty years on the throne, recently removed four of her eight grandchildren from their royal titles. CNN reported that “announced on Thursday that from next year the children of her younger son, Prince Joachim, will no longer be known as prince and princess.”
In her announcement of the event, it was said this was done to “create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent without being limited by the special considerations and duties that a formal affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark as an institution involves.” This trimming of the royal family is something that other Royal families have done, and it has been speculated that the U.K.’s King Charles III will be doing something similar with his own massive family.
Where the issue arrose was in the fact that Prince Joachim’s family was not informed of this until a few days before. Two of his children are with his first wife, Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, and he has two more with Princess Marie, his second wife, with whom he currently lives, in Paris. A spokesperson for Countess Alexandra said she was “in shock” and “sad” because of the news: “She can’t believe why and why now, because there’s no good reason. They would lose their titles anyway when they get married one day. Her sons are young men so maybe they might get married in the near future so why shouldn’t it wait until that day so that the titles would disappear on a happy day?”
It has been shared by spokespeople that the children where also shocked by the news and haven’t spoken to their grandmother since it was announced. “It’s just their loss of identity and it’s very hard for little children and young men,” said Von Wildenrath Løvgreen to CNN, who was authorized to speak for the family. “As Prince Nikolai said to me, ‘what will they write in my passport now?’”
While Joachim and his family doesn’t receive any money from the public, this slimming of who is in the royal family and receives titles if often done in order to make sure they aren’t seen as a drain on people.
From the royal household’s director of communications to CNN via email, it was stated, “As Her Majesty The Queen stated yesterday, the decision has been a long time coming. The Queen’s decision has taken various forms along the way, but Prince Joachim has been involved in and informed about the process since May 5th. We fully understand that there are many emotions involved at the moment, but we hope that The Queen’s desire to future-proof the Royal House of Denmark will be respected.”
Time will tell, but right now, it is just another example of how monarchy seems to create more familial rifts than anything else.
(via CNN, image: Rune Hellestad/Getty Images)
