Stunning admission by Queen Mary’s sidelined brother-in-law blows open Danish royal rift. I fear Frederik’s olive branch came too late, writes royal reporter SHARON HUNT

Queen Mary and King Frederik of Denmark have a public perception issue on their hands – namely that they are a royal family divided.

And, at present, there is very little they can do to stop it.

The latest chink in the armour became apparent last week when the Danish King’s U.S.-based brother Prince Joachim gave a rare interview with the media.

The normally private youngest son of former monarch Queen Margrethe II chose his words carefully during the sit-down with Norwegian network TV2.

But reading between the lines of one particular response offers insight into the status of the ongoing royal rift that threatens the stability of the House of Glücksburg.

Joachim’s interview, which aired on June 6, saw the 56-year-old directly questioned over his family’s long-term plans and whether they intend to remain living abroad.

The prince, who is fifth in the line of succession to the Danish throne, made it clear he and the extended royal family had a strong ‘desire’ to return home.

But, he added, it was not as simple as packing their bags and coming back.

King Frederik and Queen Mary (together right, in 2022) are wrestling with the public perception of a divided royal family while Prince Joachim and Princess Marie (together left) live in the U.S.

Prince Joachim (right) has given a rare new interview revealing his family’s future plans. He is pictured here with wife Princess Marie (left) at the 2025 New Year’s Dinner in Copenhagen

His telling 40-word response was: ‘We have a desire to come home. But we also do not rule out the possibility of staying abroad. Now we have to see.

‘For now, it is on our radar, when the post here stops, we will return home.’

The ambiguity in his response – he wants to come home, yet he could stay in exile and it’s a case of ‘we have to see’ – hints at discord and a still-unresolved family rift.

Dare I say, it was Prince Harry-esque? 

It all stems from three years ago, during the reign of Joachim’s mother Queen Margrethe, when she made the sudden decision to revoke the royal titles of four of her eight grandchildren.

This impacted on all of Joachim’s children, then-titled Prince Nikolai and Prince Felix, from his first marriage to Princess Marie, as well as his youngest children, then Prince Henrik and Princess Athena, who were born to current wife, Princess Marie. 

The decision was made by Margrethe, now 85, in late 2022 during the 50th year of her reign as a move to ‘future-proof’ the royal family and ‘slim down’ the court.

At the time, the Queen explained that removing her grandchildren’s titles would allow them to ‘shape their own lives, without being limited by the special considerations and obligations that a formal affiliation to the Royal House of Denmark entails’.

The decision was also ‘in line with similar adjustments’ made by neighbouring royal households, where royals lower down in the line of succession have had their HRH titles removed.

The decree downgraded Joachim’s four children Nikolai, 25, Felix, 23, Henrik, 16, and Athena, 13, to Counts and Countesses. 

Meanwhile, King Frederik and Queen Mary’s four children, Prince Christian, Princess Isabella and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, all kept their HRH titles.

Princess Marie and Prince Joachim, pictured here in a portrait taken in March 2025 at the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, D.C., are based in the U.S. They moved their family overseas in the aftermath of the prince’s children being stripped of their royal titles

Accordingly, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Prince Joachim was none too pleased by the move.

In the immediate aftermath, Joachim, his wife Princess Marie, along with his ex-wife Countess Alexandra publicly lambasted the decision, with the prince angrily declaring his children had been ‘mistreated’.

‘Why should their identity be removed? Why must they be punished in this way?’ he asked.

Count Nikolai himself said in a later interview: ‘My whole family and I are, of course, very sad.

‘We are, as my parents have also stated, in shock at this decision and at how quickly it has actually gone. I don’t understand why it had to happen this way.’

As news of the royal demotion generated international headlines, Margrethe herself eventually conceded she had ‘underestimated the extent to which my younger son and his family feel affected… and for that I am sorry.’

Despite the apology, the damage was done – and it widened a simmering rift between Prince Joachim and the core royal family members.

With his children’s titles downgraded, Joachim soon afterwards took up a role as defence industry attaché at the Danish Embassy in the United States, relocating with wife Princess Marie and their two youngest children to Washington, D.C., in mid 2023.

In happier times: This picture from May 2023 was taken just months before Queen Margrethe II made the historic decision to strip the titles of all four of Prince Joachim’s children. (L-R: Count Nikolai, Princess Marie, Countess Athena, Count Henrik, Prince Joachim and Count Felix)

Prince Joachim (second from left), his current wife Princess Marie (left) and ex-wife Countess Alexandra (right) were stunned and hurt when their children’s royal titles were revoked. They are all pictured here together four years ago celebrating the birthday of Count Felix (centre) with (L-R) Countess Athena, Count Henrik and Count Nikolai

They have remained there ever since in what appeared to be an effort to distance themselves from the royal family in the aftermath of the stripped-titles fiasco. 

But hurt feelings continued to ache, evidenced by an interview given last year when Prince Joachim and Princess Marie admitted to The Washington Post they had ‘complicated’ feelings about the Queen’s decision to remove their children’s titles.

Since Prince Joachim and Prince Marie have been living abroad, Margrethe handed over the reins of the monarchy to her son Frederik in 2024, who assumed the throne alongside his Australian-born wife Mary.

With a new reigning monarch now fully ushered in, there now appears to be small but purposeful steps being actively taken by King Frederik, 57, and Queen Mary, 53, to repair the rift with Prince Joachim and his family.

Just recently, the King appeared to offer an olive branch in the form of awarding the prestigious Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog to his nephews – Joachim’s adult sons – Count Felix and Count Nikolai.

The gesture was viewed as a potential reconciliation moment two years after the young men were stripped of their titles.

‘A stroke of genius,’ is how one royal source described the wry political move.

But has it come too late?

Hours before this balcony appearance by King Frederik and Queen Mary on 26 May 2025, the king bestowed prestigious titles on Prince Joachim’s adult children

On the morning of his birthday, King Frederik (centre) invited his nephews Count Felix (left) Count Nikolai (right) to the palace to award them with the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog. The move was viewed by royal insiders as an olive branch gesture to repair pre-existing royal family rifts

Prince Joachim’s latest interview certainly insinuates that while the door remains open for his family’s homecoming, it is likely to remain dependent on whether his family is emotionally ready to move on from past hurt.

Optimistically, Joachim spoke at length in the new interview about specific aspects he and his wife Princess Marie, 49, along with his youngest children Henrik and Athena, were missing about their homeland.

The royal confirmed that while they were enjoying their ‘little nuclear family’ existence in the U.S., ultimately being outside of Europe and away from their close circle fuelled their hopes to one day return home.

‘Overall, we can all feel it, and we can also feel it in the children, that it is at home in Denmark that we have our largest social base,’ Prince Joachim told TV2.

‘We can’t travel back and forth – after all, there is a six-hour time difference and an entire ocean in between.’

Prince Joachim alluded in the new interview that his job as attaché would determine how long they remained in the States.

It’s previously been reported that his current stint is expected to run until 2026.

But whether or not his family choose to extend their stay or return to Denmark would surely also be dependent on the status of relations within the Danish royal family.

For now, King Frederik and Queen Mary continue to contend with the optics of a cracked royal household.

But recent steps to thaw frosty relations may eventually facilitate a return for Prince Joachim and his family – which would go a long way to undoing this divided perception.

Watch this space.

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