Crown Princess Mary of Denmark has been spotted appearing to shed a tear just hours after sharing a cryptic post about loneliness.
The Australian-born royal was spotted looking emotional as she said goodbye to friends with her husband Crown Prince Frederik and their children. The Danish royals have been visiting both Australia and New Zealand with their three youngest children on a pre-Christmas holiday. At Queenstown Airport in New Zealand, both Mary and Frederik were seen hugging friends and saying their goodbyes before travelling on to the Australian city of Brisbane. They are expected back in Denmark to celebrate Christmas.
The tear-filled goodbye came hours after Mary shared a cryptic message on Instagram just weeks after Frederik was pictured with a Mexican socialite, prompting cruel rumours about their marriage.
In a personal message on her account for her Mary Foundation charity, which aims to fight social isolation, she mysteriously said: "Time is a peculiar thing. The more years you have covered, the faster the next year seems to pass by. At the same time, you become more and more aware of how precious every moment - and every year - is."
She added: "Now Christmas is at the door. At the Mary Foundation, we will soon close 2023 and go on Christmas break with gratitude for all that we humans can do when we do it together. We need each other if we want to succeed. And this does not only apply to working life and to those of us who work to combat social isolation. It applies to all of us. People need people. With the warmest wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
Meghan Markle 'to unleash her own memoirs' as Prince Harry's drops next weekRumours about the Danish royal couple were sparked last month when Frederik, heir to the Danish throne, was seen attending a Pablo Picasso exhibition in Spain with former Mexican celebrity Masterchef contestant, Genoveva Casanova
Casanova, 47, later slammed the rumours, saying the "photos prove nothing" and that the pair are just "friends". "I want to make it very clear that I have no relationship with him, as some suggest," she said. "Except for those who want to distort the images and see something where there is nothing. We have common friends and I am not going to tell who my friends are."
Frederik had planned the trip to Spain to enjoy art exhibitions and watch flamenco dancing. It is believed that he had planned to attend the Picasso exhibition with a mutual friend he shares with Casanova. However at the last minute, the friend was unable to go and he reportedly asked Genoveva to attend in his place. After visiting the exhibition at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, the pair walked through El Retiro Park, before heading to El Corral de la Morería for dinner.
Mary met her future husband in 2000 in a bar in Sydney during the Olympic Games. The now princess didn’t recognise the handsome stranger who introduced himself as 'Fred' and she gave him her phone number. He later recalled feeling she was his 'soulmate' from that first encounter. When news of their long-distance romance broke, Mary moved to Copenhagen and got a job at Microsoft. They wed in 2004 in a grand ceremony similar to that of Prince William and Kate's with Frederik declaring, "Mary is mine and I am hers."
Like Kate, Mary is a proud mum and has two sons and two daughters - Prince Christian, Princess Isabella and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.