jessiwessi

(I didn't know dogs liked sugar)Haha! Did he really say that!! Omg, can you imagine Prince Philip of England saying that?? No waaay! Yaay, go Prince Henrik!! Lol! Why don't we make this 'The Official Prince Henrik Fan Club' thread? You're welcome, Valentine and Smiley! Jasl, well, I wouldn't open a fan club for him, but I think he's a pretty fascinating person who has had difficutlies to accept his role in life but has obviously thought a lot about this and learned to cope with it. Hopefully also Prince Richard will overcome that "everything is bad and noone accepts me, I'm a nobody"-part of his life....

You're all very welcome. Actually it was more fun than work translating it. actually I neither liked Prince Henrik very much. When I lived in Denmark everybody just laughed about him and didn't take him seriously. But the more I learn about him the more respect I feel for him. It must have been very hard to give up everything for love to go to a foreign world and step back behind your wife completely. Being chairman of such in influential European institution as "EuropaNostra" certainly is nothing you do just for fun but hard work. I'm very glad that the Prince finally seems to be happy with his life. He laughed a lot during this interview and you could hear in his words that he is content with everything at the moment, though it wasn't easy to reach this. And I agree, Jasl, his honesty is really impressing. Not many other princes would talk frankl about feeling like a dog begging for sugar !

(different videos of PH and QMII with Frederik and Joachim: presenting little Frederik the first time to the public, the whole family on the balcony, playing a game on board of the Dannebrog (talking French btw), riding lessons) "I loved my sons very much, but perhaps they are of the opinion that we didn’t care enough for them. Ant that’s true. We had so many duties, that we perhaps didn’t have enough time for them. By the way, today I think that I wished to have had so much time for my sons as a father with a normal job would have had for them. It tried to teach my sons a certain sense of duty and a sense for what they are representing in our society. We a flags, sign-boards. We have the chance to stand at the top of our society’s pyramid. We are a symbols and the next generation must be aware of these symbols. This is the only way for them to be satisfied with themselves and to find confirmation among the people that surround them. He (jessiwessi: CP Frederik) has definitely got what we supposed to be the right education. A bit strict perhaps, with too many obstacles, but he certainly knows his way. And I think he has all the aquirements to adapt monarchy to the 21st century. " (opening of EuropaNostra’s general meeting in Strasbourg, PH making the opening speech, later having lunch in a Countess’s garden) "Without wanting to praise myself, I think that I put a lot of activities in my life. I can’t do nothing. I don’t dwell on with mourning, for me life must always go on. I have three caritative duties: one for the people with the Red Cross, one for the animals with WWF and one for the buildings with EuropaNostra. This takes a lot of time and I have to travel a lot. We have two conferences: one general assembly and one meeting of the council, twice a year. This has to be prepared and that takes a lot of time. "Protocol can be like a yoke hard to carry. But you also have to say that it protects us. There are invisible borders, invisible lines, but they must never hinder us to be a human being. I think it depends of the personalities in high positions to know how to loose these stoppages of protocol and to express human and personal feelings. (a long feature about visiting hirtshals during the summercruise 2003: shaking hands, listening to speeches in the city hall, walking through the streets, visiting a factory and some villages, reception on board of the Dannebrog and waving goodbye in the evening. Then another long feature about PH and CPF sailing in France) "She (jessiwessi: his boat “Najade”) is something like the Ferrari or Porsche among the boats: fast, able to compete, elegant and racy – and I love the competition on the water! (jessiwessi: about CPF: ) I think his is just a sportive concurrence. My son participates in the dragon class since only four years and I think he is looking forward to compete with his father. Yes, I’m looking for some challenge! But I’m also playing tennis, I ride, go skiing. I like doing sports, that’s how I stay physically fit. I think sailing is a very nice sport. Especially in Denmark I fell in love with it. We are known as good sailors since the time of the Vikings! (the regatta: CPF wins) "Sailing must be in our genes! When he wins, he must have inherited this by his father! " (PH’s birthday in 2003, he presents three puppies to the public) "Every person defines hi role in a different way. But I thin you need a big dose of professionalism, of vocation and mellowness. And also constancy and tenacity of the couple. And a strong will. A will to keep the relationship in a good condition. You always have to “feed” it with vitamins and dung and you must not let it dissolve. You have to do away with the weed."

(1966 at Copenhagen airport, PH arrives for the official engagement) "The arrival of a French in Denmark was something new, surprising. I was welcomed very friendly, then criticized harshly and now everything is okay, I think. Since my earliest childhood I dreamt of being a diplomat. I always wanted to be an ambassador. Perhaps I could have become one, who knows. I think we were on of the first royal couples who married because of love at that time, without any preparations or expectations. I was completely unknown and so was my family. There was absolutely no reason for a Danish princess of Lutheran faith to look for a prince in France. But not we have set an example: king Beaudoin of Belgium has found a wife in Spain, Princess Beatrix an unknown German. At that time society had begun to change. I can’t say that I have been prepared for my role, except of the fact that my job, my journeys, my studies and my whole childhood have given me a routine that allowed me to find my way as a prince consort." (the wedding) "That (jessiwessi: the whole wedding) wasn’t a problem for me. Not only an act of strong will but also of sense. But I have to say that something like this is not easy to do, you don’t do it with your little finger. I think one shouldn’t renounce your personality. It would be dreadful to become a jumping-jack – what I never did. I don’t think that I have ever been a jumping-jack, but it’s something different to give up your name, your country, your religion, your friends and also your work, because I used to be a diplomat, a fulfilled a function in society. All this I gave up, but on my own accord. Firstly because I loved my wife, but also because I wanted to support her in carrying out her duties. People expect the husband to step back behind his wife completely, because she now fulfils both roles. She is husband and wife at the same time. What remains for the husband? Almost nothing. So he has to find a place in his own world to avoid becoming a shadow. at the same time he has to form his position in a way that it doesn’t evoke the impression that he want to be in first place. When a couple is getting on well, then the wife has to understand her husband’s difficult situation. In our partnership this is the case. And my wife never gave me the feeling to be not more than a shadow. She regards me to be at the same level as her, just like a king would do with his queen, if I may say that. "

So, finally I found the time to do the translation of the interview. I have only translated what he said and not the reporter's comments. The sentences in brackets are related to the videos shown in the background while PH is speaking in the off. The main topic of this feature is the role of Prince Philip of GB, Prince Henrik of Denmark, Prince Bernhard and Prince Klaus of the Netherlands, how they feel not being king but only a Prince Consort. In the first twenty minutes of the documentary they presented Prince Philip of Great Britain, then they start focusing on Prince Henrik: (PH and QMII in the vineyards of summerly Caix) "I have always considered this situation to be very problematic for a man. Before I had married there where only two prince consorts: Prince Philip of Great Britain and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands. I was of the opinion, that they were doing their job extraordinarily well and also have reached harmony in their marriages. My family is from this area. My parents also have a vineyard, about 20 km from here. I have cousins and relatives here. I thought that my children would like to be in contact with their grandparents and their French cousins and so we decided to look for a house here. And this little castle was for sell. It was in miserable condition and for the Queen and me it was a very attractive thought to reconstruct it after our own taste. Most of all it’s a place of retreat for the family. When the Queen comes here, she’s first of all in a foreign country. So she has time to rest and to relax. She paints a bit or embroiders. For me it’s the same, but I also have a lot of work: I use the time when I’m here to look after my estate. Viticulture is one way to keep in touch with the important things in life: with agriculture. But I see it more from the romantic point of view, because it’s a lot of work to produce good wine. It’s true, I have also written poems here. This castle has actually been owned by the poet Lefron Pompignon [jessiwessi: this is certainly not the correct spelling, if anybody knows how to write his name, please help...]. He was well-known in the 18th century, a member of the “Academie française”. He has written theatre plays, mainly in verses. We think that we don’t have much freedom: it’s a bit like giraffes in the zoo: we are the giraffes and have to satisfy the public and at the same time to adapt to our environment. " (on the balcony, 1972, when CP Margrethe was proclaimed to be QMII, then later the new Royal Family on the balcony: PH, QMII and little CPF and PJ, to small to look over the balustrade) "That was a very emotional moment: on the one hand because I lost my father-in-law who had always supported me, liked me from the beginning on and regarded me as his son. On the other hand because we lost a lot of our freedom. My wife was now head of state and I the head of state’s husband. We had to realize that our lives won’t be the same anymore, but certainly will be very interesting. A Prince Consort must have a rhinoceros’s skin and a seismograph’s sensitiveness. We are the favourite target of journalists and all kinds of criticism. That’s why the skin has to be thick enough to let bounce off any criticism. At the same time you have to be sensitive as a seismograph because you must know exactly what you can do and what you can’t do. Or like Oscar Wilde said, how far you can go without going to far. In the public’s mind the prince consort is practically not existing, there is only the queen. All the attention concentrates on the female character and the consort is like a little dog running after her, yelping, sitting up and begging to get it’s peace of sugar. That’s the conception that the people have of a prince consort "

Okay, just give me 2 or 3 days, and I will translate it - unless this wasn't an exclusive interview and has been published before? Does anybody know of an interview he gave at his birthday 2003 speaking frankly but quite positively about his role as a prince consort? As I haven't heard before the things he said, I will so start translating it but I'm pretty busy with working and studying at the moment, so as I said, it may take some days. B)

As Julia.Montague has already posted some days ago in the "TV tipps" thread, there has been a documentary on European prince consorts in the German/French TV channel "arte". I watched it yesterday and it was just great, great, great! It was about Prince Philip, the Dutch prince consorts Bernhard and Klaus and of course about Prince Henrik. They focused very much on Prince Henrik, because he was the only one who gave in interview. he talked a lot about his role as a prince consort, the Dane's attitude towards him, the Queen, his jobs and duties and so on. I'm not too sure about that, but I think that the interview was made on his birthday 2003. F) If there is any interest of those who haven't been able to watch this, I could try to translate what he said and also some of the comments that the reporter made while they showed some videos of the Prince. Anybody interested?