It was the ultimate love story that’s given hope to the masses – girl meets boy at a bar, boy and girl fall madly in love, turns out the boy is a future King of a European country, and they live happily ever after in their royal palace.
Well, that’s what we’ve been led to believe in the case of one Mary Donaldson, later to become Crown Princess Mary after she married Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Only, this infamous first meeting everyone talks about, which was rumoured to be at Sydney’s Slip Inn pub during the 2000 Summer Olympics, actually didn’t happen quite like we originally thought.
Brace yourselves for this one, folks.
According to one of Princess Mary’s bridesmaids, Amber Petty, the Princess actually met the Prince at an “exclusive private dinner party”, which was attended by a group of royals who were visiting Australia for the Olympics at the time.
Speaking to Sunrise this morning, Amber broke the news: “I’m sorry to break everybody’s hearts, but it’s not always about randomly bumping into princes in pubs,” she told the show.
“It wasn’t just a random meeting… it was an organised small dinner during the Olympics and Mary happened to be invited and most of the guests happened to be royals.”
Excuse us, what!?
It turns out the pair’s first meeting wasn’t as organic as we thought…
(Getty)Amber explained that the pair had been seated close to each other, and shared the old one-liner we constantly tend to need reminding of.
“That’s really the truth… it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”
Crown Princess Mary and the Prince had been “seated close to each other”.
(Getty)But whether it was set up or not, it seemed there was nothing to hold the pair back from their initial connection.
“I think they were sitting across from each other, which is obviously the perfect position to be talking and bonding with someone,” Amber explained.
“It was a very civilised, lovely dinner and it was the start of what would become a very big chapter for both of them.”
There’s certainly no denying that – just take a look at the gallery below for visual proof.
After meeting in Sydney, the Prince and Princess settled in Denmark where they reside to this day.
In 2004, they were married in Copenhagen, and later had four children – Prince Christian, 14, Princess Isabella, 13, and nine-year-old twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.
The family are the image of wholesomeness, and after having spent lockdown together in Denmark, they’re currently enjoying the summer in Europe.
Of course, while Mary and Frederik’s relationship origins are always a great tale to hear, looking at them now is proof that it really doesn’t matter how you meet as opposed to what you do after meeting.
In their case, it’s still nothing short of a fairytale.
WATCH: Crown Princess Mary and her family share a message from isolation:
