Queen Margrethe of Denmark’s public apology after making the decision to strip her grandchildren of their royal titles suggests there is a ‘huge conflict’ and she is frightened of appearing like an ‘ice queen’, royal experts have claimed

In a photograph from the event which was taken on Friday, the royal can be seen posing on a boat topless in the sunshine.

The Crown Prince appeared to recline on the boat as he chatted with friends during his seven day visit to the country last week. 

The news comes after Frederik’s brother  Joachim and his second wife Marie admitted their relationship is ‘complicated’.

During the interview, B.T reported that a French woman approached the royal couple and told them their children will ‘always be princes and princesses to her’, apparently leaving Marie and Joachim in tears. 

Elsewhere, Marie, the mother of Joachim’s two youngest children, told the Danish news outlet that her daughter Athena is being bullied at school after the decision was publicly announced earlier this week.

‘They come and say (to Athena): Is it you who is no longer a princess?,’ she said, adding that her children were put under the public spotlight and so she feels the need to defend them.

Last week, Joachim hit out at his mother Margrethe’s decision, saying it ‘punished’ his children, as well as claiming he had only been told the news five days before it was made public — despite the Royal Household insisting the move ‘has been a long time coming’.

The oldest son of Australian-born Princess Mary, 50, and Frederik is Prince Christian, 16, who is second-in-line to the throne.  

Frederick and Mary’s four children — Prince Christian, 16, Princess Isabella, 15, and twins Princess Josephine and Prince Vincent, 11 — remain unaffected by the monarch’s decision as they are direct descendants of the future King. 

However Princess Mary suggested that might not always be the case, saying they will ‘also look at [their] children’s titles when the time comes’. 

Speaking about the monarch’s intention to slim down the Danish royal family, Joachim said: ‘The reality must still be: whether you modernize or slim down, it must be done in a proper way.It’s about children. Orderliness and children. It is a very heavy matter.’

Commenting on Princess Mary’s point that her children may too lose titles in the future, Joachim said: ‘I don’t know how they feel if they have to think it through.Now is preparation time. We didn’t have that.’

The prince, who is Margrethe’s youngest son, said: ‘I can say that my children are sad. My kids don’t know which leg to stand on. What they should believe. Why should their identity be removed? Why must they be punished in that way?’

‘I don’t want to engage in speculation and mudslinging,’ said Joachim. ‘I am telling the truth… I was given five days notice… I was given five days’ notice of this. To tell my children that on New Year’s their identity will be taken from them.’

He added that in May, he was presented with a plan that his ‘children’s identity should be taken from them when each of them turned 25’, to which he asked ‘to be allowed to come back with my proposal’.

But he said he was given just five days notice that the decision was to be accelerated, adding: ‘I am so sorry for my children. I just demand the truth.’

His ex-wife, Countess Alexandra, the mother of his two eldest children, added in a statement to Danish magazine Se og Hør: ‘This comes like a bolt from the blue. The children feel ostracized. They cannot understand why their identity is being taken away from them.’

Her spokesperson Helle von Wildenrath Løvgreen told another news organisation that Joachim learned of his children’s fate via an aide. 

Queen Margrethe spoke neither to her sons nor her grandchildren, it is claimed.