Royals Who Quietly Worked A Regular Job

It’s not just Britain’s royals who hold down 9-to-5 jobs, either. At one point, Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark also had a regular position prior to taking on her royal duties.

Born in Australia and raised between there and the U.S., Mary graduated from the University of Tasmania in 1994. She initially went into advertising and spent several years pushing paper at some of the country’s largest agencies, working her way up to a sales director position in the early 2000s. Then she met her future husband, Crown Prince Frederik, during the 2000 Olympic Games (which were, of course, held in Sydney), and appeared to realize a move to Europe would be necessary if she intended to pursue the relationship.

So, Mary up and relocated to Denmark (with a career pitstop in Paris, where she briefly taught English), where she was hired by Microsoft Business Solutions as a project consultant in 2002. The future princess held that position up until the couple’s 2003 engagement, swapping her private sector job for a gig as a full-time working royal. But her time as an ad executive seems to have made her all the more aware of the issues her subjects face in their own lives. Mary established The Mary Foundation in 2007 and uses her platform to advocate for the likes of equality, empathy, and environmental sustainability. “I’ve always had a strong sense of justice: that everyone should have the same opportunities, no matter where you come from,” she told Financial Times in 2022.