Whispers link Microsoft, royalty

Denmark is one country where Microsoft should get along well with the government. One of its employees there is dating the crown prince, and rumor has it she's being groomed to become the next queen.

Mary Donaldson, 30, a former real-estate agent from Australia, has been the talk of the nation since she began dating Crown Prince Frederik, 34, two years ago.

Gossip reached a crescendo yesterday, the first day of Donaldson's new job in the public-relations department of Microsoft's Navision subsidiary in Denmark.

Donaldson is on a team of five working on the new identity for the business-software company Microsoft bought in July for $1.4 billion.

Frederik, who attended Harvard University, served as a frogman in the Danish Navy and worked at the Robert Mondavi Winery in the Napa Valley, had a string of girlfriends before he met Donaldson at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Press reports have noted Donaldson is appearing in increasingly formal attire and speculated that she's being prepped for royalty. An Australian paper also reported seeing a large ring on her left ring finger in July.

Microsoft's international-affairs spokesman was unaware of any employees with royal connections and would not discuss Donaldson.

"We don't comment on employees' personal lives, regardless," said Mark Thomas.

The Danish royal family has no official political role but it's a beloved institution, especially Queen Margarethe II. The highly educated, progressive 62-year-old uses her annual New Year's speech to the nation and her pulpit to push for integration, racial harmony, morals and values.

Danes say they respect the royals' privacy, but they are closely following the life of the handsome prince destined to be their king.

"The Danes are eager to see the crown prince settling. He's had a lot of girlfriends that didn't seem to have the queen material," said Bodil Brovick, a Bellevue insurance agent and president of the Northwest Danish Foundation, a cultural and philanthropic organization in North Seattle.

Brovick said Frederik's choice of wife is important for the fate of the monarchy, which needs the people's support to continue.

"I think it's important for the future of any monarchy that you have a royal family that is respected and does show a high level of values, and from that standpoint, I think it's very important who Frederik chooses," she said.

Donaldson has a tough act to follow in Queen Margarethe II and Princess Alexandra, a Hong Kong investment executive who married Prince Frederik's younger brother, Joachim, in 1995. She quickly learned Danish, speaks well in public and is liked by the people, Brovick said.

"You need to have a person that can handle worldly affairs," Brovick said. "She will be a representative of the country. When she's traveling, she needs to have a certain level of presence, charisma, educational background and so on to handle those situations in a professional way."

Even before Microsoft hired the prince's girlfriend, Denmark was supportive of the company, which has its Scandinavian headquarters in Copenhagen. In June, the country declined a request by a Navision competitor to launch a European Commission investigation of Navision's sale.

Other countries in the region have spawned Microsoft competitors. The Linux operating system was created in Finland and the Opera Web browser is from Norway.

If Donaldson marries the prince and becomes queen someday, it would not affect the government's regulation of Microsoft, said Lis Frederiksen, minister counselor at the Royal Danish Embassy in Washington, D.C.

"No, absolutely not," she said. "The royal family's totally separate from that kind of business and governmental issues."

Frederiksen said the government has no official comment on the relationship but admitted she follows the Frederik gossip.

"Everybody's very curious about it. You bet they are,'' she said. "The woman that he picks is going to become the next queen."

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.