Prince Nikolai of Demark has reacted with confusion to his Grandmother Queen Margrethe’s decision to strip him and his three siblings of their royal titles.
The children of Prince Joachim, Queen Margrethe’s second son, will no longer have their Prince/Princess or His/Her Highness titles from next year.
People magazine reports that Nikolai, 23, Felix, 20, Henrik, 13, and Athena, 10, will instead be known by His Excellency Count of Monpezat or Her Excellency Countess of Monpezat.
They will maintain their places in the order of succession, currently seventh through to the tenth in the line to the throne, People reports.
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“My whole family and I are, of course, very sad,” Prince Nikolai said.
“We are, as my parents have also stated, in shock at this decision and at how quickly it has actually gone,” Prince Nikolai said to Danish outlet Ekstra Bladet outside his Copenhagen home following the announcement.
“I am very confused as to why it has to happen like this.”
Prince Joachim also said he was saddened and surprised by the news, telling a Danish media outlet that he was given five days notice.
Decision follows Queen’s testing positive to COVID
Queen Margrethe tested positive for the coronavirus after attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
The royal household said that Margrethe, 82, who has been on the throne for 50 years, cancelled her official duties after the test.
The palace said her oldest son, heir to the throne Crown Prince Frederik, and his Australian-born wife Crown Princess Mary would take the Queen’s place hosting a dinner with Danish government officials and members of parliament.
Margrethe previously tested positive for the virus in February.
At the time, the palace said she had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The Queen was among the dignitaries who attended Queen Elizabeth II’s recent funeral at Westminster Abbey in London.
Margrethe’s half-century reign makes her Europe’s longest-serving monarch following the September 8 death of Elizabeth, 96, who ruled for 70 years.
Out of respect for the late British monarch, Margrethe had asked her court to adjust the September 10-11 program for her own 50-year anniversary commemorations.
Among the events she cancelled at short notice was appearing on the Amalienborg Palace balcony to greet well-wishers and a ride in a horse-drawn carriage through Copenhagen.
Margrethe was proclaimed Queen on January 15, 1972, a day after her father, King Frederik IX, died following a short illness.
-with AAP
