When the Duchess of Cambridge flies into Copenhagen for her two-day solo visit later this month, she will find herself on very familiar ground.
Denmark is celebrating the Golden Jubilee of the much-loved Queen Margrethe’s reign, mirroring the Platinum celebrations of our own monarch — Margrethe’s third cousin.
Along with the childcare specialists the Duchess will meet, she will also spend time in the company of Crown Princess Mary, wife of the heir to the throne and a woman who bears an almost uncanny similarity to Kate in many aspects.
Yes, both are strikingly good-looking, tall, brunette, slender and able to carry off everything from tiaras to gumboots.
And both have found themselves in a royal role that neither were born into.
But the parallels go deeper. These are two women who have brought to royal life an innate understanding of how to be successful royals today.
When the Duchess of Cambridge flies into Copenhagen for her two-day solo visit later this month, she will find herself on very familiar ground. Along with the childcare specialists the Duchess will meet, she will also spend time in the company of Crown Princess Mary (right), wife of the heir to the throne and a woman who bears an almost uncanny similarity to Kate in many aspects
In marriage, they have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into their demanding roles, transforming from the cheerful, outdoorsy young women they once were into the elegant and thoughtful spear-carriers of their nation’s monarchies.
While Kate Middleton’s middle-class Home Counties upbringing was not completely unlike that of Prince William — boarding school, skiing holidays, university at St Andrews — the Princess, as the former Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, came from a very different place to her husband, Crown Prince Frederik.
Born to a Scottish mathematics professor and his wife on the small island of Tasmania in Australia, thousands of miles from the spectacular Frederik VIII’s Palace of Amalienborg that is now her home in Copenhagen, hers was a completely different world.
She met Prince Frederik, now 53, in a pub called The Slip Inn in Sydney. She was then a 28-year-old sales director for a luxury estate agent, and he was visiting Australia for the 2000 Olympic Games.
Famous for dating Scandi models and even a pop star, it was apparently love at first sight for ‘Fred’.
They married in 2004 and Mary was taken under the wing of Frederik’s mother, the formidable Queen Margrethe II, herself a graduate of Cambridge and the Sorbonne.
Yes, both are strikingly good-looking, tall, brunette, slender and able to carry off everything from tiaras to gumboots. And both have found themselves in a royal role that neither were born into. Above: Kate and Mary in similar attire
Similar to Kate, Mary knuckled down to the job, was soon fluent in Danish and has established herself as a hugely popular figure.
But for all the preparation, neither she nor Kate could possibly have imagined the lives they would lead as the first commoners to marry their country’s future rulers — and bear their children.
(Mary, now 50, has four — two sons and a two daughters — to Kate’s two boys and a girl.)
And both have acclimatised to the accompanying scrutiny with aplomb.
On their home territory both women are admired for their style and the Danish Press, I am told, is anticipating a good-natured fashion contest between the two.
‘You almost can’t tell them apart,’ one keen — and obviously partisan observer — in Copenhagen tells me. ‘Mary is less animated, she doesn’t do the big laughs. She’s just a little more poised and regal.’
Similar to Kate, Mary knuckled down to the job, was soon fluent in Danish and has established herself as a hugely popular figure. But for all the preparation, neither she nor Kate could possibly have imagined the lives they would lead as the first commoners to marry their country’s future rulers — and bear their children
On their home territory both women are admired for their style and the Danish Press, I am told, is anticipating a good-natured fashion contest between the two. ‘You almost can’t tell them apart,’ one keen — and obviously partisan observer — in Copenhagen tells me. ‘Mary is less animated, she doesn’t do the big laughs. She’s just a little more poised and regal’
While both are intelligent, educated and opinionated women, they recognise that how they look is, for better or worse, a non-negotiable part of the job description.
Crown Princess Mary is a decade older than the Duchess but they share a now-confident sense of what works, embracing rather than avoiding fashion.
The informal jeans and V-necked tops of their early days are still there, as is a penchant for baseball caps, Breton T’s and oversize sunnies.
However, increasingly we are seeing them out and about dressed for manoeuvres — public duties.
But that doesn’t mean sinking into bland frump. Instead they have graduated from the safe, neat and frankly dull dresses of their early days of marriage to adopt contemporary trends and experiment with a range of designers.
Along with joint favourites such as Jenny Packham and Erdem and, in the Duchess’s case, a much relied upon Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen, they have been seen in identical dresses from lesser-known brands including Beulah.
Crown Princess Mary is a decade older than the Duchess but they share a now-confident sense of what works, embracing rather than avoiding fashion. Crown Princess Mary is a great supporter of Copenhagen Fashion Week, an event growing in international relevance and — similar to Kate — makes an effort to draw attention to home-grown fashion talent
Crown Princess Mary is a great supporter of Copenhagen Fashion Week, an event growing in international relevance and — similar to Kate — makes an effort to draw attention to home-grown fashion talent.
While the two women generally favour simple silhouettes that are safer in the thousands of photographs that accompany their every move, they add playful and on-trend details — a statement sleeve, a standout collar, the wide-legged, high-waisted trousers of the moment.
Of course, this trip will not be the first time the two have met. The Danish royal family are, as with most European royalty, related by birth to our own royals.
But it will be the first time the Duchess will be travelling alone to promote The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood, which she launched last year.
While the two women generally favour simple silhouettes that are safer in the thousands of photographs that accompany their every move, they add playful and on-trend details — a statement sleeve, a standout collar, the wide-legged, high-waisted trousers of the moment. Of course, this trip will not be the first time the two have met. The Danish royal family are, as with most European royalty, related by birth to our own royals
Both women have a more than personal interest in child welfare. Crown Princess Mary has her own foundation to support vulnerable women and children from domestic abuse.
Much like the Cambridges, the Crown Prince and Princess are navigating parenting in an age where their children need to be aware of the world outside the royal bubble as well as be able to function within an ancient institution.
Most children don’t have their first days at school photographed by the nation’s Press. Nor gather to smile cheesily for holiday photographs in the snow.
Their ‘normal’ is not like most of ours. But these royal children are fortunate to have mothers who know the advantages that a degree of normality can bring and who will ensure that their children experience it.
That aside, when on duty both of them can ramp up spectacular formality — their tall, slim frames allowing them to carry off the spectacular full-length gowns of gala nights and state dinners, accessorised by a garter sash and tiara.
Mothers and wives, stateswomen and diplomats. Modern women in the real world, yes. But also able, when occasion demands, to give us jolly good, guns firing on all cylinders, fabulous regal.
Additional reporting Ulla Kloster