Queen Mary returns to Australia in top secret visit to attend late father’s memorial

Queen Mary of Denmark has returned to Australia under a cloud of secrecy to attend a private memorial service for her late father John Donaldson.

The Danish queen flew in from Copenhagen earlier this week along with her husband King Frederik X.

Confirmation of the royal couple’s visit to Tasmania was given by the Danish Royal House, which added a note to their official diary late on Wednesday afternoon Australian time.

It read: “The King and Queen attend a private memorial service for the Queen’s father, Mr. John Donaldson, in Hobart, Tasmania”.

Donaldson died in Hobart on April 11, aged 84, after several years of ailing health.

Speculation Queen Mary and King Frederik had left Denmark began earlier this week when it was confirmed their 20-year-old son, Crown Prince Christian, was acting as regent in their absence.

Read more

Royals emerge victorious over Diana’s brother one week after his book threatened to destabilise the monarchy

It is not known how long Mary will stay in her home state, but Frederik is due to compete in a sailing competition in St Tropez this weekend.

The death of Queen Mary’s father was announced by the Royal House in April.

In a statement, the Tasmanian-born queen said: “My heart is heavy and my thoughts are grey. My beloved father is dead.

"But I know that when the grief subsides, the memories will brighten, and what will remain most strongly is the love and gratitude for everything he gave me and taught me."

Queen Mary was able to see her father for the final time in March in Hobart, at the end of her and King Frederik X’s state visit to Australia.

At the time, the palace said a private memorial service would take place at a later date.

Queen Mary and her father "had several good and present moments together" when they last saw each other in March, the palace said.

The state visit to Australia ended in Hobart on March 19 and the queen remained in Tasmania for a few days with her family before returning to Denmark.

A photo shared to announce Donaldson’s death was taken by Queen Mary on March 23, following the completion of the state visit.

Donaldson and his first wife, Henrietta, had four children: Jane Stephens, Patricia Bailey, John Donaldson and Queen Mary.

Queen Mary's mother died in November 1997 of complications from heart surgery.

Donaldson later remarried British author Susan Moody, and they both were regular fixtures at Danish royal family events following Mary’s marriage.

Days after Donaldson’s death, Queen Mary thanked the public for their messages of condolence.

“My heartfelt thanks for the overwhelming number of messages, flowers and warm thoughts regarding my father’s death,” she said.

"The enormous amount of empathy has touched us deeply, and means more than words can say."

Professor Donaldson and his daughter had an extremely close bond that was strengthened by his time living in Copenhagen, when he moved there to support Mary’s extraordinary journey from commoner to crown princess.

Donaldson, a professor of applied mathematics, taught at Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen before returning to Australia with his wife, Susan, years later.

On May 14, 2004, Donaldson walked his daughter down the aisle of Copenhagen Cathedral when she married then-Crown Prince Frederik.

He was dressed in a kilt in a nod to his Scottish heritage.

Afterwards, at the reception inside Fredensborg Palace that night, Frederik addressed his new father-in-law.

"Dear John, what a privilege, what a thrill, what an extraordinary feeling of happiness you have created in me," Frederik said.

"One might say Mary also belongs to you – but as of today, she belongs to me and I belong to her.

"I love her and I will protect her with all my heart. I will do my best to make her feel confident and at home in her new country."

Donaldson then gave his own speech, in which he joked about the historic battle between the Vikings and the head of Clan MacDonald (who the Donaldsons are connected with) who drove the Vikings out of Scotland 800 years ago.

"The grandfather of the first Donald, the founder of the Clan MacDonald, would have wondered why he went so much trouble when, some eight centuries later, we take account of today's union between the Viking Frederik and Mary of the MacDonald Clan," Donaldson said.

Donaldson said he and his wife had "watched the relationship [between Frederik and Mary] grow to full bloom, culminating in this magnificent occasion".

"I am the proud father of a very loving daughter," he said.

“Although fathers these days have little say in such matters, it is with great pleasure and confidence that I entrust her to the care of Frederik, an intelligent, sporting, debonair, delightful young man – what more could a father-in-law ask?”

Donaldson spoke about Mary's childhood and her special relationship with her mother, who died three years before she met Frederik during the Sydney Olympics.

"Growing up under the combined influences of her mother, Henrietta, and her grandmother Mary, she has grasped every opportunity to broaden her horizons and has developed into a wonderful woman with many fine attributes.

"Memories abound of the bonding between Mary and her mother, the daily tours on the backseat of a bicycle around Clear Lake City when we lived in Texas, the many early, very early, car journeys down to her first loves of her life, her horses in Tasmania and the myriad communications when she moved after her graduation from the University of Tasmania to Melbourne.

"Henrietta would have been so happy for Mary on this her special day."

In a 2004 book published shortly before the wedding, Mary told Danish author Anne Wolden-Ræthinge that her father had given her advice which she followed all of her life.

“You have to do what makes you happy,” Donaldson once told his daughter.

"That's the most important thing."

Mary went on to say that she inherited her father's athletic abilities and his logical thinking when it came to problem solving.

Speaking about her father's special role at the royal wedding, in a documentary to mark her 50th birthday in 2022, Mary said: "When I see my dad I think, 'wow'.

"He looks as though he is enjoying everything to the fullest," she said.

"He's smiling and he looks so proud."

Mary rarely speaks about her Australian family, who have succeeded in staying out of the spotlight.

But putting them through “a wedding of that magnitude”, she said, was something she felt “guilty” about.

"My family are people who are firmly down to earth. I felt a little guilty about exposing them to something which for them was so unreal.

"I had gotten used to some of it. But they were happy on our behalf."

The journalist who interviewed Mary for the documentary said she appeared "calm" throughout her wedding day and asked whether she had inherited that trait from her father.

"I would probably say that. I also think mother was very calm," she said.

Donaldson was unable to travel to Denmark when Frederik was proclaimed King on January 14, 2024, due to his advancing years and declining health.

But Mary's sister Jane was there representing her Australian family.

Queen Mary's return to Tasmania in March would have, no doubt, been a bittersweet time for her most likely knowing that it would be the final time she would see her father alive.