Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II announces shock abdication in New Year’s Eve speech: Monarch who stripped relatives of royal titles in 2022 will stand aside for her scandal-hit son Crown Prince Frederik after 52 years on the throne

Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II will abdicate on January 14 next year after 52 years on the throne, she announced during her traditional New Year’s Eve speech.

The monarch, famed for her chain-smoking as well as her flamboyant sense of style, will be succeeded by her eldest son Crown Prince Frederik.

The 83-year-old queen, who took over the throne in 1972, is the longest-serving monarch in Europe following the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022.

In February, she underwent a successful back surgery.

‘The surgery naturally gave rise to thinking about the future – whether the time had come to leave the responsibility to the next generation,’ she said in her speech.

‘I have decided that now is the right time. On January 14, 2024, 52 years after I succeeded my beloved father, I will step down as Queen of Denmark.

‘I leave the throne to my son, Crown Prince Frederik.’

The Danish Royal Family has been rocked by rumours in recent weeks – after photographs emerged of Crown Prince Frederik enjoying a night out with a Mexican socialite in Madrid in October.

Despite the swirling rumours of the alleged ‘affair’, Crown Prince Frederik, 55, and his Australian-born wife Crown Princess Mary 51, appeared loved up as they headed into Aarhus cathedral on Sunday, December 24.

In Denmark, formal power resides with the elected parliament and its government. The monarch is expected to stay above partisan politics, representing the nation with traditional duties ranging from state visits to national day celebrations.

Born in 1940, Margrethe has throughout her life enjoyed broad support from Danes, who are fond of her tactful and yet creative personality.

The monarch hit the headlines last year when she removed royal titles from the four children of her younger son Prince Joachim. 

She enjoyed a close relationship with her third cousin Queen Elizabeth II, both descendants of Queen Victoria, having bonded during several state visits to each other’s countries down the decades – most recently in 2000, when Margrethe was received at Windsor.

Margrethe was born on April 16, 1940, a week after Nazi Germany had invaded Denmark. The occupation meant that the little princess became a symbol of hope for the Danes. 

She ascended the throne on January 15, 1972, after the death of her father. 

But, although she was his eldest child, she did not become heir presumptive until 1953, when Denmark’s constitution was amended to allow women to inherit the throne. 

That followed a referendum in which more than 85 per cent of participants voted to allow female succession.

She was married in 1967 to a Frenchman, Henri Marie Jean André de Laborde de Monpezat, later styled as Prince Henrik. They had two sons, Prince Frederick and Prince Joachim.

Despite enjoying a long marriage of 50 years, her relationship with Henrik was plagued with controversy. Henrik stunned Danes by saying he felt he had been pushed aside in his own home by his wife.

Prince Henrik died in 2018 aged 83. 

On the day she became monarch, she appeared on the balcony of Denmark’s Christiansborg Palace and pledged her allegiance to the nation.

Wearing a black veil and gown adorned with the regalia of the Order of the Elephant and her father King Frederick IX’s Family Order attached to her gown, the 31-year-old monarch stated: ‘My beloved father, our King, is dead.

‘The task that my father had carried for nearly 25 years is now resting on my shoulders. I pray to God to give me help and strength to carry the heavy heritage. May the trust that was given to my father also be granted to me.’

Becoming the first queen of Denmark since Margrethe I in the early 15th-century, the monarch blazed a trail that continues to this day.

A popular queen, she is known as the ‘people’s monarch’ thanks to the fact that, as well as doing her own shopping, she has a flourishing career as an illustrator and designer and, until 2015, defied convention by lighting up in public.

In 2021, it was announced she had been hired as the set designer for a Netflix film where she would design the sets for an adaptation of a romantic fantasy novel by Out of Africa’s Karen Blixen, one of Denmark’s most internationally recognised female authors. 

Margrethe has also studied at five universities and is a committed anglophile.

She spent a year at North Foreland Lodge boarding school in Hampshire, and went on to study prehistoric archaeology at Girton College, Cambridge.  

The then princess also studied at the London School of Economics in 1965.  

Speaking in an interview to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee last June, Margrethe told how the Queen had made an ‘enormous impression’ on her, because of the way she has ‘faced her duties, the way she is dedicated but also that she does it with a smile.’

The pair are said to have used nicknames for each other, with the Queen calling her Danish counterpart ‘Daisy’ and Margrethe using ‘Lilibet’ – the name used by her closest family. 

Margrethe is known as ‘Daisy’ or ‘aunt Daisy’ because the flower of the same name is known as ‘marguerite’ in both Sweden and Denmark.

Both monarchs also shared a love of dogs, with the Queen being famous for her love of corgis – having had more than 30 in her life – and Margrethe favouring Dachshunds.

Queen Margrethe was related to Her Late Majesty through Queen Victoria, whose third son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, was Margrethe’s great-grandfather and Her Majesty’s great-uncle.

Margrethe’s House of Glücksburg and the House of Windsor are also linked by Margrethe’s great-great-grandfather, Christian IX. 

His daughter, Alexandra, married Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria.

He was the Queen’s great-grandfather and King Charles III’s great-great-grandfather. 

Her Majesty visited Denmark for the first time in 1957, when Margrethe’s parents – King Frederick IX and Queen Ingrid were on the throne. 

Her second trip in 1979 is remembered for the awkward moment when a Danish soldier was thrown from his horse during the parade in Copenhagen – and Her Majesty broke into a smile. 

Margrethe clapped her hand to her mouth in embarrassment, but could not help betraying a smile too. 

Another hussar then had trouble controlling his steed and it galloped up from the rear of the troupe before prancing around the royal coach. 

Thankfully, the rest of the visit passed without any further drama. 

When Margrethe visited Britain in 1974, the Queen greeted her with a joke, saying: ‘There once was a time when news of Danes arriving on our east coast was anything but good news.’