SCANDINAVIA: The royal families of Nordic neighbours Norway and Denmark have announced their crown princesses were both expecting babies in what one Swedish newspaper called a "royal baby boom".
Denmark's Australian-born Crown Princess Mary and Crown Prince Frederik are expecting their first child by the end of October, the Danish royal court said yesterday.
And in Oslo, the Norwegian palace said Crown Princess Mette-Marit was expecting her second child with Crown Prince Haakon. She also has a son from a previous relationship.
The online edition of Swedish tabloid Expressen called it a "royal baby boom". Denmark's Amalienborg Palace said the royal couple, who married in May last year, were "happy to announce" they were expecting a child "by the end of October this year".
The Danish princess was plain Mary Donaldson, a real estate agent from Tasmania, until a fairytale romance with Frederik began when they met in a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympics.
Now she is in line to become the first Australian-born woman to be a queen, a prospect which has whipped up royal fervour in her homeland where republican sentiment is usually strong.
Frederik's mother Queen Margrethe and the royal family are very popular in Denmark. Said to be Europe's oldest royal house, their lineage dates back to the Viking King Gorm the Old, who died in 958.
Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, a 31-year-old former waitress until her own fairytale marriage to Haakon in 2001, was due to give birth in December. She would reduce her work representing the royal family during her pregnancy. Mette-Marit's daughter, Ingrid Alexandra (1), is in line to become queen after Haakon, who is a great-great-great grandson of Britain's Queen Victoria. - (Reuters)