Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed Denmark’s Queen Mary and King Frederik are set to travel to Australia for what promises to be a significant royal homecoming.
“Queen Mary is coming here,” the Prime Minister said during a radio interview last week.
“I’m not sure we’ve announced the dates, but it’s very exciting. It’s Queen Mary and King Frederik.”
Mr Albanese noted his wife, First Lady Jodie Haydon, was especially eager to welcome the Danish monarchs.
While the Danish Royal House has yet to officially confirm the visit, Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet reports the trip is scheduled for March.
This would follow the royal couple’s engagements in Estonia and Lithuania, which conclude on January 28.
Queen Mary is set to return to Australia in the first official State Visit in 13 years
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The forthcoming trip would mark the first official Australian visit for the couple since 2013, when they attended as Crown Prince and Crown Princess.
During that earlier engagement, they marked the Sydney Opera House’s 40th anniversary and participated in the Crown Prince Couple Awards ceremony.
Queen Mary, who was raised in Tasmania, has made two private journeys to her homeland since King Frederik assumed the throne following Queen Margrethe’s abdication in 2024.
These visits have centred on spending time with her Australian relatives, including her 84-year-old father John Donaldson and her sisters Jane Stephens and Patricia Bailey.
In February 2025, King Frederik accompanied her to Tasmania along with three of their four children: Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent, and Princess Josephine. Crown Prince Christian remained in Denmark to serve as regent during their absence.
The upcoming state visit will likely invoke memories of where the royal’s story began more than two decades ago.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the visit in a radio interview
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Mary, then a 28-year-old working in advertising, encountered the Danish Crown Prince at The Slip Inn, a Sydney pub, during the 2000 Olympic Games. She had been celebrating swimmer Ian Thorpe’s record-breaking performance in the 400m freestyle.
Frederik was visiting Sydney with the Danish sailing team, accompanied by his brother Prince Joachim, his cousin Prince Nikolaos of Greece, and the Prince of Asturias, now King Felipe of Spain.
It was Felipe who happened to know Mary’s flatmate, leading to the introduction. Frederik reportedly requested her telephone number, though she had no idea she was speaking to royalty.
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What followed was a long-distance romance spanning the globe, with Mary relocating from Australia to Denmark in 2001 and teaching herself Danish along the way.
The couple kept their relationship private until 2003, when they went public shortly before announcing their engagement.
Frederik presented Mary with a ring featuring jewels in colours reminiscent of the Danish flag.
King Frederik and Queen Mary met in Australia in 2000
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Reflecting on their first meeting, Queen Mary has said: “It wasn’t fireworks in the sky or anything like that, but there was a sense of excitement.”
The pair married four years after that chance encounter in Sydney, with fireworks illuminating the skies above Fredensborg Palace as they celebrated their union.