A Danish Scandal Shows Gaps in Coverage
Photos of Crown Prince Frederik and a female "friend" are just the tip of the iceberg on the issue of disparate news stories
Hello Dear Readers!
Royal Twitter was a-flutter this week, for a very good reason. Let’s set the mood: The Danish Royal Family was hosting the King and Queen of Spain on a three-day visit to Copenhagen. The first night started off with a bang: A state banquet at Christiansborg Castle where Queen Letizia and Crown Princess Mary showed off some shine for the occasion with some wonderful tiara moments. Queen Letizia opted for an eye-catching statement piece, while Princess Mary chose a more subdued sparkler.
Letizia wore the Spanish Fleur-de-Lys Tiara, sometimes known simply as “La Buena”—“The good one”—which was given in 1906 by Spain’s King Alfonso XIII to his bride, Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (a granddaughter of Queen Victoria) later known as Queen Ena. The piece features a large central fleurs-de-lys motif, a symbol of the House of Borbon, Spain’s ruling family. Mary instead wore an early 1900s tiara she reportedly purchased for herself. The ruby, diamond and spinel piece was a necklace when Mary acquired it in 2012, and the Princess has worn it as such before having the setting refitted as a tiara. All was well. Or so we thought. A day later, all hell broke loose:
Lecturas, a Spanish tabloid, published a photo (whilst promising more were to come), of Crown Prince Frederik with a socialite named Genoveva Casanova (what a name). In it, they claimed Frederik had spent the night at her house and brought a change of clothes. American publications like People Magazine gave a very sanitized edit of the story: There was nothing untoward about this outing, these were two friends who had a last minute dinner because Frederik’s companion cried off last minute and Genoveva was suggested as a replacement. But here at HRH Royal Tea, we like to go straight to the source aka Google Translate, to get the full story. And boy, it’s actually so much worse.
Genoveva is the ex-wife of Cayetano Martínez de Irujo, son of the Duchess of Alba. Prince Frederik from Denmark is the heir to the Danish throne and has been married to Princess Mary for nearly 20 years.
When Lecturas released the initial photo and headline of this story, Genoveva and her people were quick to issue swift denials to several journalists. She categorically denied Frederik sleeping at her house and she pushed back on any narratives which said she had a romantic relationship with the Danish prince. The photos released on the other hand? Tells a very different, far more incriminating story. According to Lecturas, this is the timeline showing the 12 hours that Frederik allegedly spent with Genoveva in Madrid.
On 25 October, Frederik of Denmark and Genoveva Casanova started the evening at El Retiro, where they “left through one of the park’s gates at around 7pm”. From there, they got into a car that took them to her house, located in the Jerónimos neighborhood. They “entered separately, but left together”.
They spent around two hours inside the Genoveva’s home and, when they left, “they were dressed differently”.
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