DENMARK: Denmark's Prince Joachim set to marry his French girlfriend Marie Cavallier in the spring

Denmark's Prince Joachim, fourth in line to the Danish throne, will marry his French girlfriend, Marie Cavallier in the spring next year, the royal court said on Wednesday (October 3). "Her Majesty the Queen of Denmark and His Royal Highness the Prince Consort are pleased to announce the engagement of their son, His Royal Highness Prince Joachim to Miss Marie Cavallier," the court said in a statement. Joachim, 38, Queen Margrethe's second son, was divorced from his Hong Kong-born wife Alexandra by mutual consent in 2005. They have two sons. Joachim and Cavallier, 31, told a news conference Joachim had proposed while they were on vacation in Turkey this summer. They met at a private hunt in 2002 and have been seeing each other seriously since 2005. They are planning to have children. Joachim said that he had asked Cavallier's grandmother and mother for permission to marry her, before asking her father. "They don't see me as a prince because to them Marie is the most precious," he said. The wedding will take place in the spring of 2008 after which Marie will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Marie. Marie Agathe Odile Cavallier was born in Paris in 1976. She lives in Switzerland. Cavallier will switch her French passport for Danish citizenship and plans to convert to Denmark's state Evangelical Lutheran Church from Roman Catholicism. Joachim is fourth in line to Denmark's throne after his brother Crown Prince Frederik and Frederik's two children.

ITN Source | October 4, 2007

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