We all know Princess Mary of Denmark is Australian, but another Danish royal is about to boast an Aussie connection.
Princess Mary’s 23-year-old nephew, Count Nikolai of Denmark, is about to move to Australia – for a little while, at least.
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The grandson of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark said he was “super-excited” to move to Sydney to spend a semester studying at UTS (University of Technology Sydney).
He’ll be joined by his long-term girlfriend, Benedikte Thoustrup, who is also enrolled to study at UTS.
They are expected to begin their Sydney studies in August and continue until November.
Nikolai’s usual place of study is at the Copenhagen Business School, but as befits a young royal, he has already spent time abroad, including one stint studying in Paris.
Australia, however, is the furthest he will ever have been, as he recently told the Dutch edition of Numero magazine.
“It is an adventure I am stoked to begin and super-excited to live abroad again,” he said.
“The choice fell on Australia because it is very foreign for a Dane like me.
“I have never been that far away and I believe seeing that corner of the world takes more than two weeks holiday, so I want to try and move there.”
Nikolai, who is seventh in line to the Danish throne, is also forging a career as a model.
According to Numero, he signed with London’s Scoop Models in 2018, making his runway debut at a Burberry show during London Fashion Week.
He is now signed with Elite Model World in Paris and has modelled for the likes of Dior.
Nikolai’s aunt, Princess Mary, was born and raised in Tasmania, famous meeting her now-husband, Crown Prince Frederik, during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Nikolai’s father is Joachim, the younger brother of Princess Mary’s husband, Crown Prince Frederik.
Joachim’s side of the family became the focus of worldwide media scrutiny after Queen Margrethe announced that his children would be stripped of their HRH titles in an effort to “downsize” the Danish monarchy.
In a statement released last year, Margrethe said the decision would allow her grandchildren “to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent, without being limited” by royal strictures.
That meant that on January 1 of this year, Nikolai was demoted from a prince to a count, and he is now officially known as His Excellency Count Nikolai of Monpezat.
The change of title also affects Nikolai’s siblings Felix, Henrik, and Athena, who are now all referred to as Their Excellencies rather than Prince or Princess.
Initially, news of the royal demotion did not go down well with Nikolai or his father Joachim, both of whom issued statements to the Danish magazine Ekstra Bladet criticising the Queen’s decision.
“We are all very sad,” Joachim said in a statement.
“It’s never fun to see your children being harmed.
“They have been put in a situation they do not understand.”
Nikolai also spoke to the press about the decision, telling Extra Bladet he was “in shock” about how quickly it had all unfolded.
“My whole family and I are of course very sad,” he said.
“I am very confused as to why it has to happen like this.”
However, being stripped of HRH status doesn’t exactly mean Nikolai is now living life in the mundane lane.
He recently shared photos to his 63,000-plus Instagram followers of a summer stay at his grandmother’s chateau in the south of France.
In one photo, the young royal posed in front of a vineyard with a bottle of wine and two glasses at his side.
In another, he is shown throwing open the shutters of a room in the royal chateau, whilst in another he and sister Athena put up a tennis net.
One brief video shows Nikolai jumping from a bridge into water, while other photographs capture incredible scenic views.
The photographs were captioned: “Summer nights.”
“Dreamy,” one follower wrote, while another remarked: “Looks like you’re having a wonderful time.”
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