Prince Joachim of Denmark Says 'We've Moved On' from Queen Margrethe's Decision to Strip His Kids' Titles (2024)

Prince Joachim of Denmark is past the friction that followed his mother Queen Margrethe’s decision to strip his four children of their royal titles.

Prince Joachim and his wife, Princess Marie, opened up about the subject in a new interview with The Washington Post conducted in March at the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, D.C.

"We’ve moved on," Prince Joachim, 54, told the outlet in a piece published on April 16.

"We weren’t happy about the way it happened," Princess Marie, 48, said. "But it’s a family thing. It’s complicated."

Princess Marie added that the change in royal titles for Count Nikolai, Count Felix, Count Henrik and Countess Athena — who were previously known as princes and a princess — carried a great weight.

"It’s also their name. It’s their identity since they were born. So it’s more than just what people see as a title," she told the Washington Post.

The couple relocated from their home in France to Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2023 for Prince Joachim to start a new job with the Danish Embassy under the Ministry of Defense. The transatlantic move came nearly a year after Queen Margrethe made the surprising decision to strip the royal titles held since birth from Joachim’s older sons Nikolai, 24, and Felix, 21 (whom he shares with his ex-wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg) and younger children Henrik, 14, and Athena, 12, (whom he shares with Princess Marie).

Queen Margrethe, 84, announced the move in September 2022, and the change became official on Jan. 1, 2023. Prince Joachim’s kids lost their prince or princess titles and their "His/Her Highness" styling but retained their respective places in the line of succession. The siblings are now known instead by His Excellency Count of Monpezat or Her Excellency Countess of Monpezat, titles afforded through their late grandfather, Prince Henrik.

The Queen’s unexpected announcement outlined that she wished to "create the framework for the four grandchildren to be able to shape their own lives to a much greater extent" without the responsibilities related to affiliation with the Royal House of Denmark.

The former monarch later apologized for causing any hard feelings around the abrupt announcement after Joachim, Marie and Alexandra all criticized the decision, but she defended the move as "necessary future-proofing of the monarchy." In 2019, King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden did something similar when he announced that his grandchildren not directly in the line of succession would no longer be official members of the royal house. However, the affected grandchildren retained their prince or princess titles, which became personal, meaning that any future spouses or children would not have a right to the styling.

Another wave of change rocked the Danish royal family in December 2023, when Queen Margrethe used her annual speech on New Years’ Eve to announce that she would be abdicating just a few weeks later. The news caused shock across Denmark, as the monarch previously hinted that she intended to reign for life. Margrethe became the first Danish sovereign to voluntarily step down from the throne in nearly 900 years.

On Jan. 14 — the 52nd anniversary of her accession — Queen Margrethe signed a declaration of abdication at Christiansborg Palace and her eldest son was promoted from Crown Prince Frederik to King Frederik X. King Frederik’s wife became Queen Mary and their 18-year-old son Crown Prince Christian, while the couple’s three younger children — Princess Isabella, 17, and 13-year-old twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine — all moved up a spot in the line of succession. Unlike their first cousins, Frederik and Mary’s kids were not affected by their grandmother’s title strip move in September 2022.

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Joachim attended the accession festivities without his wife and kids — similar to Prince Harry’s quick trip to the United Kingdom for the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla in May 2023 — and gave his brother a hug as they made their way into Parliament the following day.

Months after settling in the U.S., Prince Joachim told the Washington Post that he and his family have the freedom to fly under the royal radar as they forge their next chapter. According to the outlet, Nikolai is focused on modeling as Felix attends business school while Henrik and Athena are enrolled at an international school in U.S. capital.

"We’ve lived here for seven months now and very few people know who we are, Danes apart," Prince Joachim said.