A translated article from my achive, which give us an idea into how our Marie experienced life as a newly wed, new royal and pregnant for the first time.
Billed Bladet #48, 2008.11.28
Jeg vil være tæt på mit barn. – I want to be close to my child.
The scene is set at the exclusive Hotel Grand Europa at the last stop of the Russia-trip, Saint Petersburg. In the middle of the room stand two upholstered chairs and between them a little table with mineral water for each. – “Do move closer”, says Marie spontaneously, when she notice that the journalist’ chair is standing about four metres away. – “Otherwise we can’t hear each other”, she says with a big smile.
- “It’s been a wonderful trip and it has all been very new to me”, says Marie, before they are again going back to Denmark.
- “I think all the visits have been interesting and that the cities, in their individual way have been exciting to visit. Ekatarinburg is undergoing a big development. Moscow is more commercial and industrial (not industrious. Industry), while Saint Petersburg is incredibly beautiful”, says Marie, while she keeps an alert eye on her husband, Prince Joachim, who nodding supports his wife’s contemplations.
- “Moscow seems like a more established city and Saint Petersburg more like a city in Europe”, (*) supplements Joachim, who is visiting Russia for the sixth time. For Princess Marie it’s the first meeting with the culture, the country and the inhabitants. Joachim is crazy about Russia and it was indeed he who suggested that Marie should come along.
Q; Would it be wrong to say that the Prince is in love in Russia?
- “No – not at all! I’ve travelled in many countries and I have usually found a key to the individual country. Some fascinate more than others and I’ve been to places where I most likely will never go again. Russia on the other hand gets under your skin. More than other countries”, says Joachim, while Marie tries to be more specific in her fascination of the country. Earlier that week the Princess visited a library for children and that visit made a big impression on her.
- “It’s so lovely to see the children. They no longer have fears and they seem very happy. They are eager to tell about their lives, as they did, when I visited them at the library. It reminds more of the countries we come from ourselves”, she tells enthusiastically.
Q: What has made the biggest impression on the Princess?
- “Apart from the meeting with the children it made a big impression to meet the homeless here in saint Petersburg”, tells Marie, who in the shelter got an opportunity to hear about the big problems which Russia has in the regard. About six million people live on the streets all over the country. In Saint Petersburg alone there 6.000 children who have no roof over their heads. Numbers, which moved the Princess a lot. Talking about children, the Princess herself is going to be mother soon and that naturally set thoughts in motion regarding being with the child and upbringing.
To her there is no doubt that she will be there for her children when the time comes. In contrast to Prince Joachim she has never been looked after by nannies. Apart from that she loves to travel and consequently believe that it’s important to show your future pack of children the world.
- “When we get children, we will have them with us all the time and I believe it’s important to bring the children on travels. Both official and unofficial”.
- “I was seventeen when I went on my first official trip”, says Joachim. Marie smiles and come up with one of her great spontaneous remarks, something with the French beauty that Joachim no doubt has fallen for himself. (**)
- “That was in the old days. Now the times are different”, she laughs.
- “But who knows, perhaps I get crazy and completely impossible, when I become mother myself. So it may be that they will not be allowed anything at all. That’s impossible to know”, she says.
Princess Marie is, as it is known, pregnant and it has, - not least for her – been a hard trip. But without letting it be known, fatigue has made its mark from time to time.
- “It simply cannot be avoided that you get tired after some long days, where you are at it from early morning to late in the evening. But you forget it when you get out to so many exciting events”, says Marie, who personally has learned a lot from the trip. Joachim is flat on his nose in admiration for the effort by his wife. (***)
- “Marie has been very brave and more brave than you could expect. We have been in full swing all the time, and seen in the rear-view mirror, the schedule should have been less tight. She has done it so well”, commends Joachim, who earlier in the week explained that the trip is also a part of an education, which Marie naturally has to go through. She is in other words in the middle of an important learning process.
- “When you are on a trip like this, there is a lot you have to learn. It’s hard training and the first trip for the Princess”, (****) explains Joachim and looks proudly on Marie who adds:
- “We certainly learn to work together and we talk with each other what we experience and feel. There are so many different things going on, so unfortunately we cannot find time to discuss it all because the schedule is so tight”, she says. Joachim does not mind at all assessing his beautiful wife on a scale from 1-10.
- “Then she definitely should get a 12”, he smiles and supplements that the visit was originally intended as a commercial offensive for Denmark – “Fortunately we have managed to both fill in some culture and charity to the schedule”.
Interviewed by Henrik Salling.
(*) Which was very much the purpose, when Peter the Great founded the city.
(**) And now Henrik Salling too, it seems.
(***) The journalist is here using the more respectful and formal word for wife. Hustru.
(****) How about her practise run to Morocco?
