The future king of Denmark, a rebellious teenager turned climate-conscious family man, he is the embodiment of the country’s relaxed, liberal monarchy.

Passionate about the environment, Prince Frederik has quietly stepped into the shadow of his hugely popular mother, Queen Margrethe II, championing Denmark and its efforts to find solutions to the climate crisis.

“When the time comes, I will steer the ship”he said in 2022. “I will follow you, as you followed your father in the leadership of the 1,000-year-old institution”, added Prince Frederik, addressing his mother. And after his mother’s shock announcement on New Year’s Eve that she intends to step down in early 2024, he will soon get his chance.

“He wasn’t exactly a rebel, but as a child and a young man, he was very uncomfortable with the media attention and the knowledge that he was going to be king.”said Gitte Redder, an expert on the Danish royal family. “He only gained confidence in his mid-20s”he told AFP.

Frederick resented his parents for neglecting him as they attended to their royal duties. He sought solace in fast cars and was considered a spoiled party prince in the early 1990s.

But that view began to change after he graduated from Aarhus University in 1995, the first Danish royal to complete university studies. His university education also included a stint at Harvard in the US, where he enrolled under the pseudonym Frederik Henriksen.

The fake surname was a nod to his father, the French diplomat Henri de Monpezat, who became Prince Consul Henrik when he married Margrethe. But Frederik – who speaks English, French and German – really began to mature into his role during his training in the three branches of the Danish military.

The prince served in the Navy’s Frogmen Corps – where he was nicknamed ‘Pingo’ – one of only four of 300 recruits to pass all exams in 1995. In 2000, he took part in a four-month, 3,500km skiing expedition to Greenland .

His brash side has landed him in hospital after sled and scooter accidents, but his popularity has soared, boosted by the Royal Run, an annual race across Denmark that began in 2018.

“He’s an athlete, attends concerts and football games, which makes him even more approachable than his mother”said royal expert Redder.

Prince Frederick

“I don’t want to be locked in a fortress. I want to be myself, a human being”he had once said, insisting that he would stick to it even after taking the throne.

He met his wife, Mary Donaldson, an Australian lawyer, in a Sydney bar during the 2000 Olympics. They tried to give their four children as normal an upbringing as possible, sending them mostly to state schools.

The couple, said historian Sebastian Olden-Jørgensen, is “modern, enlightened people, lovers of pop music, contemporary art and sports, who keep up with their times”he added.