Queen Mary and King Frederik's love story hinged on two votes ahead of the 2000 Olympics
By Maddison Leach|
No one expects a royal romance to be set in to motion by the words "and the winner is... Sydney".
Those were the famous words that rang out on September 24, 1993, declaring Sydney, Australia had won the right to host the 2000 Olympic Games.
It was one of the biggest moments in the city's history and, by total chance, is also the reason an Australian is the Queen of Denmark today.
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Had Sydney not won the bid to host the games, then-Prince Frederik of Denmark never would have travelled to Australia in 2000.
Had he not come Down Under, her never would have had the chance to visit the Slip Inn for a rounds of drinks and bump into Mary Donaldson.
Had they never met, they never would have fallen in love, married, welcomed four beautiful children, and eventually ascended to the Danish throne.
And to think it all began with an Olympic bid.
Campaign for the Sydney Olympics
Five cities were in the running to host the 2000 Summer Olympics; Sydney in Australia, Beijing in China, Manchester in the UK, Berlin in Germany, and Istanbul in Turkey.
Representatives from each of the cities headed to Monte Carlo in 1993 to give presentations on why their city should win the right to host the games, with Beijing coming out as an early favourite.
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There were four rounds of voting and Sydney trailed behind the Chinese capital in all but the final round, where the votes were scarily close.
On September 24, 1993, the final count was checked and the winner announced; Sydney had taken the top spot by just two votes.
The announcement came in at 4:17 am Sydney time. They had just under seven years to prepare for "the best Games ever."
'A future king walks into a bar'
Sydney was packed with international tourists by the time the 2000 Summer Olympics rolled around, including several A-list celebrities and even a few royals.
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Danish Crown Prince Frederik was among the revellers in town for the occasion, joined by his brother Prince Joachim, his cousin Prince Nikolaos of Greece, and Princess Martha Louise of Norway.
On September 16, the foursome headed to popular Sydney bar and restaurant the Slip Inn for a drink, where they mixed with locals who had no clue they were royalty.
There were a few staff from Kings Cross real estate company Belle Property in the crowd that night, including Tasmanian-born Mary Donaldson.
She'd moved to Sydney for her career and never expected to bump into – and steal the heart of – a future king that night.
"The first time we met, we shook hands and I didn't know he was the Crown Prince of Denmark. An hour or so later someone came up to me and said, 'Do you know who these people are?'" Mary told 60 Minutes.
"From the first moment we started talking, we never really stopped talking, and that was part of our geographical distance, everything was through words so it really established a strong relationship to begin with."
Frederik had only been in the country for two days at that point, but the connection between them was instantaneous.
"Despite the geographical distance but we had a good connection and slowly love grew," Frederik said.
By 2003 they were engaged and the rest, as they say, is history.
A royal wedding, 20 years on
On May 14, 2004, Mary Donaldson became Crown Princess Mary of Denmark in a lavish royal wedding to Frederik.
Now, 20 years on, she is the nation's Queen and is beloved by her people there and back at home in Australia.
Revisiting her wedding day in 2022 for her 50th birthday, Mary was moved to tears of joy as she watched footage from the special day.
"I'm actually quite moved," she told journalist Johannes Langkilde in a special program titled Mary at 50: You Can Only Be Yourself.
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Calling her wedding day a "celebration of love and future", Mary recalled how welcomed she felt by not just the Danish royals, but the general public too.
"It was big, it was really big. There was a mix of Australian and Danish flags," she recalled.
"I was not just accepted for who I am but my background was also accepted, and where I come from. And they took it into their hearts."
The couple have now been married for 20 years and have four children together.
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