Royal Family of Denmark Unveils New Titles for Prince Joachim’s Children Following Dramatic Demotions

Attention royal followers! Denmark’s Royal House has made an important (and dramatic) update to its website.

On New Year’s Day, it became official: Prince Joachim’s four children—Nikolai (23), Felix (20), Henrik (13) and Athena (10)—no longer carry the royal titles of prince and princess or “His/Her Highness.”

And per the new updates to the official royal website, the children will now be known as “His/Her Excellency” or “Counts/Countesses.” More specifically, their titles are His Excellency Count of Monpezat and Her Excellency Countess of Monpezat.

Luca Teuchmann/Getty Images

This major change comes a few months after the siblings’ grandmother, Queen Margrethe of Denmark, decided to take away their royal titles. But it seems she had a very good reason for doing so.

Back in September, the Royal House of Denmark released a public statement on the queen’s behalf, revealing the monarch chose to remove the prince and princess titles from all four of her grandchildren. Their new labels were announced at the time as well, but have only now been reflected on the website.

So, why the sudden change? Well, the queen wanted to “create the framework” for her grandchildren to “be able to shape their own lives” without having to worry about special duties that come with their royal status. Starting on January 1, all four children will no longer possess their former titles, but their position in the current line of succession remains the same.

ANDREAS RENTZ/GETTY IMAGES

New year, new royal titles.

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