King Frederik Steps Out as Brother Prince Joachim Breaks Silence on Staying in U.S. After Royal Title Controversy

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King Frederik of Denmark hit the ground running at the Royal Run with his wife, Queen Mary and their four teen kids, Crown Prince Christian, Princess Isabella, Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine
The King of Denmark, 57, attended the event shortly after his brother Prince Joachim made a rare revelation about his family's future plans
Prince Joachim, his wife Princess Marie and their two children have been living in Washington, D.C. since 2023, the year Queen Margrethe stripped all four of Joachim's children of their royal titlesKing Frederik of Denmark had a day out with his family after his brother Prince Joachim revealed whether his family will ever return to Europe after living in the U.S. for two years.
On June 9, King Frederik, 57, embarked on the annual Royal Run, which his wife, Queen Mary, and their kids Crown Prince Christian, 19, Princess Isabella, 18, and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, 14, also participated in.
King Frederik attended the event just a few days after his younger brother, Prince Joachim, 56, spoke about his own family's future in a rare interview.
Prince Joachim and his wife Princess Marie moved from France to the U.S. with their two children in the summer of 2023 as he took on a new job with the Danish Embassy, just a few months after his mother Queen Margrethe stripped his four kids of their royal titles in a shock move that he personally criticized.
Speaking to TV2, Prince Joachim said that he and Marie were thinking about returning home when his work was complete. In September 2023, Joachim took on a job with the Danish Embassy under the Ministry of Defense as an attaché covering the U.S. and Canada in September 2023.
While the stint, based in Washington, D.C., was expected to be limited to a three-year timeline, a Ministry of Defense statement said there was a possibility of extension, potentially taking the job beyond 2026.
On his family's future plans, Prince Joachim said, "We have a desire to come home. But we also do not rule out the possibility of staying abroad. Now we have to see. For now, it is on our radar, when the post here stops, we will return home."
"We are each busy in our own way. The kids are at school, where they enjoy being challenged and have an ever-growing social circle, and I have my job," he added about his family's rhythm. "We are our little nuclear family and enjoy it, and we make sure as much as possible that we also have time for each other. That it doesn't always get in the way of work, school and homework."
Prince Joachim is a father of four, and moved to D.C. with Marie and their children, son Count Henrik, 16, and daughter Countess Athena, 13. The father of four also shares two older sons, Count Nikolai, 25, and Count Felix, 22, with his first wife Alexandra, Countess of Frederiksborg, whom he divorced in 2008.
While his family is doing well in the U.S., the royal dad acknowledged that their routine is different in Europe.
"Overall, we can all feel it, and we can also feel it in the children, that it is at home in Denmark that we have our largest social base. We can't travel back and forth, after all, there is a six-hour time difference and an entire ocean in between," Joachim told TV2. "We take our time when we are home and enjoy it to the fullest. Perhaps that is the band-aid for being far away from home."
In September 2022, Queen Margrethe, 85, said that she was stripping Joachim's four children of the prince or princess titles and "His/Her Highness" styling they inherited at birth in a move she later said was "necessary future-proofing of the monarchy." Nikolai, Felix, Henrik and Athena subsequently became known as His Excellency Count of Monpezat or Her Excellency Countess of Monpezat (lower-ranking titles within the Danish royal family) as of Jan. 1, 2023, in an explosive twist that created a fracture within the family.
Prince Joachim and Princess Marie told the press that they felt shocked by the bombshell that upset their family, which seemingly prompted Queen Margrethe to apologize but maintain that it was a necessary step for the crown's future.
In a a joint interview to The Washington Post in April 2024, Princess Marie, 49, said, "We weren't happy about the way it happened" and Prince Joachim acknowledged, "We've moved on."
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Queen Margrethe abdicated in January 2024, making her elder son and successor the new King Frederik. His children each moved up a place in the line of succession, with his eldest son Christian becoming the new Crown Prince of Denmark.
Unlike their cousins, Frederik and Mary's children were not affected by their grandmother Queen Margrethe's decision to strip Joachim's kids' titles and retain the royal styling they have held through life.
The Royal Run was created to celebrate King Frederik's 50th birthday in 2018 and is part of Denmark's Move for Life campaign, which aims to make the Nordic nation the most active in the world.
Members of the Danish royal family have attended every year since in what has become a staple on the royal calendar, and King Frederik's family literally hit the ground running to support the event this year.
The King of Denmark and his family joined the record turnout of 97,500 participants for the race across the five cities of Ribe, Horsens, Viborg, Korsør and Copenhagen/Frederiksberg. In an impressive entry, the statement said that the sporty sovereign was running in three distances: the one mile kickoff run in Ribe, 5 km in Horsens and 10 km in Copenhagen/Frederiksberg.
Hello! magazine reported that Crown Prince Fredreik beat his father's time in the 5 km distance, but he may have had a leg up for a clear reason! The heir to the throne recently completed military training with the Guard Hussar Regiment and the outlet reported that Frederik said his eldest son "is in the best shape he can be."
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