Prince Frederik has abruptly left the Winter Olympics in South Korea to be at the bedside of his ailing father, Prince Henrik.
The Danish royal palace recently released a statement, informing the public that the royal’s condition had “unfortunately greatly worsened.”
It read: “His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has thus discontinued his stay in South Korea, where he was in conjunction with the Winter Olympics. The Crown Prince is now on his way to Denmark.”
Prince Henrik, 83, was last week diagnosed with a benign tumour. After undergoing treatment, he was expected to return to Fredensborg Palace, where his wife Queen Margrethe II is in residence.
On Friday morning, Frederik’s wife, Princess Mary, took the couple’s elder children to visit their sick grandfather in the Copenhagen hospital.
According to local publication BT, the beloved royal visited her father-in-law for half an hour alongside her son Prince Christian, 12, and her daughter Princess Isabella, ten.
Mary has rushed to the bedside of her sick father-in-law.
The beloved royal was accompanied by her two elder children — Prince Christian and Princess Isabella.
In 2017, Henrik was admitted to hospital on several occasions before he was diagnosed with dementia.
“Following a longer course of investigation, and most recently, a series of examinations conducted during late summer, a team of specialists at Rigshospitalet has now concluded that His Royal Highness Prince Henrik suffers from dementia,” the palace said in a statement at the time.
“The diagnosis implies a weakening of the Prince’s cognitive function level. The extent of the cognitive failure is, according to Rigshospitalet, greater than expected for the age of the Prince, and can be accompanied by changes in behavior, reaction patterns, judgment and emotional life and thus also affect the interaction with the outside world.”
“As a consequence of the diagnosis, the Prince will further downgrade his activities in the future, as well as the protection of protests and honors.”
It concluded: “It is the Queen and the royal family’s wish that the Prince in the future gets the peace that the situation demands.”
WATCH: The Danish Royals pose for a new family portrait. Post continues…
The diagnosis followed erratic behaviour and a slew of controversial comments made about his wife the Queen.
He recently made headlines after announcing his decision not to be buried next to his wife, as planned, in an already-designed sarcophagus at Denmark’s Roskilde Cathedral. The choice, he said, was due to the fact that he was never made King Consort.
Henrik is pictured with his wife, Margrethe.
“She’s the one playing me for a fool,” he said of his wife in an interview with Danish magazine Se og Hør. “I didn’t marry The Queen to get buried at Roskilde. It’s my wife and not me that can do anything about this matter. If she wants me buried with her, she has to make me King Consort.”
The prince has long-complained that he didn’t become head of state when his wife acceded to the throne in 1972.
More as we get it.
