King Harald and Queen Sonja met in 1959 at a party through King Harald’s friend, Johan Stenesen. King Harald (who was still the Crown Prince then) invited Sonja to his graduation ball. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The big hurdle in their relationship was that they had to keep their relationship a secret for 10 years because of Sonja’s commoner status (she was the daughter of a clothing merchant). They also tried to go their separate ways by moving to different parts of the world to forget each other and move on. But this proved to be unbearable for the both of them.
King Harald finally gathered courage and told the late king that he will never marry, unless it was with Sonja. With only two other sisters succeeding him, not marrying would have meant the end of the monarchy.
And so they got married on august 29, 1968 and Harald became King in 1991.
Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark and Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monzepat met at Slip Inn, a pub in Sydney, when the prince was visiting Australia for the 2000 Summer Olympics. Little did Mary know that the man he was talking to the whole night was actually a real-life prince! From there, it was a whirlwind romance where they got engaged in 2003 and got married the following year.
Mary lived in Australia as an advertising executive and real estate agent while Frederik lived in Denmark, letting their relationship blossom through overseas phone calls until Mary finally moved to Denmark to be with Frederik.
And they all lived happily ever after.
