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In April 2004, Australia’s Mary Donaldson was preparing to walk down the aisle in Copenhagen to marry the dashing heir to the Danish throne just as The Prince and Me was opening in US cinemas.
Conceived by producer Mark Amin, the rom-com drew directly from the real‑life romance of Mary and Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark, with Hollywood eager to tap into the global fascination with fairytales coming true and commoners becoming royalty.
In classic American fashion though, a few details were re-imagined. Mary became Paige Morgan (Julia Stiles), a medical student from Wisconsin, while Frederik was replaced by Crown Prince Edvard (Luke Mably).
Three sequels (sans Stiles) were made afterwards that were released straight to DVD. And 22 years after the original movie came out, I have rewatched all of them.
The similarities remain striking, but so are the differences, with the gap between the fantasy and the life Mary was about to begin feeling wider than ever.
In fact, history has shown that Hollywood’s version wasn’t nearly as compelling as the real thing.
The meet‑cute
A spontaneous night out at Sydney’s Slip Inn changed the course of Mary and Frederik’s lives.
The film version shows Paige and Edvard meeting in a campus bar, with him calling himself “Eddie”.
Frederik, too, introduced himself simply as “Fred” but, unlike his fictionalised counterpart, he wasn’t pretending to be a commoner to get out of duties.
In fact, Frederik arrived with his brother, Prince Joachim, Prince Nikolaos of Greece and Denmark, Norway’s Princess Märtha Louise and Spain’s future King Felipe VI.
“The first time we met, we shook hands,” Mary told biographer Jens Andersen. “I didn’t know he was the Prince of Denmark. Half an hour later, someone said, ‘Do you know who these people are?’”
Caught on camera
While Paige was busted in a compromising situation with Eddie in the campus library and outed on the front page of the newspaper, Mary was snapped walking down a Sydney street.
That doesn’t, however, make her early experiences with the press any less intrusive.
For weeks, private investigators and the paparazzi had been on the trail trying to uncover the identify of Frederik’s secret Australian girlfriend.
Billed Bladet was the first to name her with a four-page feature inside the magazine and her photo on the cover in late 2001. Afterwards, it was estimated that up to 50 photographers were camped outside her Belle Property workplace.
“Money was no object to these people,” Aussie photographer Jamie Fawcett told biographer Emma Tom of the Danish press. “They wanted photos of Mary in the final days of her normal life.”
With the scrutiny quickly becoming too intense, Mary was on a plane for Europe to start her new life within weeks.
Learning the ropes
Both Paige and Mary undertook a kind of apprenticeship, learning the ropes from senior members of the family, but Mary picked things up far more quickly in real life.
In the months leading up to her October 2003 engagement, Mary also dedicated herself to learning the difficult Danish language and immersed herself in the country’s history and traditions.
For Paige, the greatest challenge she faced was in deciding whether she could give up her dreams for love, until she figured out a way to have both.
So, while Paige continued to study to be a doctor and eventually worked in a Danish hospital in the three sequel movies, Mary had to give up her marketing career and many aspects of her pre-royal life.
It is unrealistic to think anyone could meet the demands of becoming Crown Princess while holding down a 9 to 5 and Mary understood her new role was a job and a worthy one at that.
So, while Hollywood captured the idea of the transformation, it really missed the intensity of the new life its leading lady was about to step into.
What the film version did nail is that both Eddie and Frederik struggled with the weight of their futures, finding a newfound dedication to their duties in showing their bride-to-be how things are done.
Crowning moments compared
Both Edvard and Frederik ascend the throne after ill health forces the reigning monarch to step aside. But the similarities end there.
In the film, Eddie is crowned in a lavish coronation followed by a glittering ball but in reality, Denmark hasn’t held a coronation ceremony since 1840.
When Frederik became King on 14 January 2024, it happened in a far more understated fashion.
He was formally proclaimed monarch by Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on the balcony of Christiansborg Palace after Queen Margrethe II signed papers ending her 52‑year reign.
Hollywood delivered pomp and pageantry while Denmark has adapted to have a modern monarchy.
The fairytale vs real-life
The Prince and Me broadly captured Mary’s story — a commoner who falls in love with a prince, learns the ropes and steps into a new life within palace walls.
But the film missed the most compelling parts: her discipline, seriousness and willingness to reshape her life entirely. Those qualities are what made Mary not just a successful Crown Princess, but now a deeply respected Queen.
And while Hollywood imagined a glamorous fairytale, Mary’s real life has been defined by quieter things. She will be remembered for her dedication to duty and for commitment to her family.
Her tiara collection may be spectacular, but it was never the point. Mary’s real triumph isn’t in having a prince fall in love with her but in everything she has done in the years since.
She has become a champion of humanitarian causes, elevated overlooked voices and used her global platform with intention.
That is something that no rom-com could ever capture. Hollywood gave the audience a fairytale but Mary has lived a life all about purpose.
Read more expert opinion and analysis in WHO’s The Royal Verdict with Kylie Walters here.
