King Frederik X of Denmark has praised his and wife Queen Mary’s “perseverance” throughout their marriage in a surprise royal book released just three days into his reign.
The monarch, 55, ascended to the throne on Sunday after his mother, Queen Margrethe II, 83, announced her surprise abdication in a New Year’s Eve speech addressed to the nation.
In the new book, titled “The King’s Word,” Frederik seemingly referenced recent affair allegations surrounding his marriage, saying he’s happy that he and Mary “managed to stay together.”
“I love marriage, my wife, our children and the whole happy base that arises for the people who manage to stay together and persevere,” he writes in the book, translated by the BBC.
The book, which was released Wednesday, was written with author Jens Andersen, who also wrote the king’s biography in 2017.
Frederik met his now-wife in Sydney, Australia, during the 2000 Olympic Games.
After striking up a relationship, the couple tied the knot in a lavish royal ceremony in Denmark four years later.
The pair, who are set to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary on May 14, share four children together: Prince Christian, 18, Princess Isabella, 16, and 12-year-old twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine.
Frederik became Denmark’s first king in 52 years on January 14.
While royal experts believe that Margrethe’s decision to abdicate early was to make way for a younger ruler, others have wondered if the announcement was a way to preserve the prince’s relationship with Mary amid affair rumors.
Frederik was speculated to have been unfaithful to the Australian-born marketing consultant, 51, with socialite Genoveva Casanova after photos emerged of them together during a trip to Madrid in November.
However, the Mexican native, 47, denied that any affair had taken place.
Elsewhere in the book, the monarch admits to grappling with the thought of having to be king one day during his childhood.
At one point in the memoir, Frederik admitted he “just wanted to be like all other boys of my age.”
“I remember my 18th birthday as something similar to the end of the world,” he recalled. “It was the feeling that now everything that was fun and exciting was coming to an end. Fortunately, it didn’t.”
The revelation appears to confirm previous claims made by royal author Trine Villemann in her 2008 unauthorized biography “1015 Copenhagen K” that Frederik “never wanted to be King.”
The book includes interviews conducted over the past year and a half, and features the king’s insight into Denmark’s place in the world, as well as snippets of his private life.
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