(dramatic orchestral music) - [Narrator] A fitness trainer, a student, a single mom, and a Tasmanian.

Four ordinary young people with ordinary lives fall in love and become suddenly royal.

- We love royal love stories because deep down inside us we think that commoner could be me and we love that little dream that it gives us, that little bit of stardust.

- [Narrator] What seems a modern starring role also comes with age-old traditions and duties like producing an heir.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] What seemed to be the perfect fairytale didn't last forever.

Fate, family, and the press would cast them in painfully public dramas.

- She had all those stories about Meghan making Kate cry and Meghan gets what she wants and Catherine was always a hero of the piece and Meghan Markle was always the villain.

- They gave interviews, they went on social media to deny that he was having an affair.

- Yes, these people are members of the royal family, but actually they're also just people.

People that have health issues.

- [Kate] After the operation found cancer had been present.

- [Narrator] These are the love stories that changed four of Europe's royal families forever and transformed the lives that were once upon a time very ordinary.

(dramatic orchestral music) (spectators applauding) At her wedding to the man destined to be king of Great Britain, commoner Kate Middleton was luminous.

Britons was star-struck.

Kate seemed the perfect Cinderella for our time.

- Pure fairytale stuff.

The prince finds his beautiful bride and what has transpired since I think has led us to believe that yes, this was a great match.

You know, they do appear to be genuinely happy together.

(bright instrumental music) - [Narrator] Now, Princess Kate's star shone brighter with the help from the royal family's publicity machine.

As much as they could, they managed her image in the press.

- The British press, generally speaking, have been very kind to Kate ever since she became part of this family.

They have cast her as a future queen to a future king, and generally speaking, the coverage has been very respectful.

- [Onlooker] I thought they were just brilliant.

I think she's a natural, infatuation worked this crowd.

It's just wonderful.

- [Narrator] And Kate soon earned even more respect.

At the end of 2012, Buckingham Palace announced she was pregnant.

- [Interviewer] How are you feeling this morning, Kate?

- That was always going to be one of her key roles, providing an heir to the throne.

- The main role of any royal bride is to provide an heir, and in that sense, it's age-old expectation.

- Motherhood and maternity is really important and one of the expectations of a queen or a princess is that they are a perfect mother.

- [Narrator] In July 2013, Kate presented perfect Prince George to the nation.

- The Princess of Wales, especially as one of the most popular royals knows how accessible she has to be to her fans, to her subjects, so to speak.

You know, when she had each of her three children, hours afterwards, literally hours afterwards, she was there on the steps of the Lindo Wing cradling the baby with this perfect bouncy blow dry and full makeup.

- [Narrator] Kate looked great and seemed tireless.

She'd married a prince and given birth to a boy who would one day be king.

No one cared that half of the future king's DNA came via Kate's airline steward mother and flight dispatcher dad, origins that would once have excluded Kate and George from any royal dynasty.

- Historically, marriages were made from dynasties, they were connecting dynasty, so the lineage was really important.

Even when princes married within the realm, again, often they were marrying a particular noble family that they wanted to get on site or ensure they had the support of.

These days none of those considerations are really necessary.

Royal blood and bloodlines just aren't as important as they used to be.

The difference between what would've been perceived at the beginning of the 20th century and the way that was perceived in the 21st century is completely different.

(uptempo orchestral music) - [Narrator] Just a few months after Prince George was born, he was working alongside his parents.

A tour demonstrating Britain's soft power in New Zealand and Australia, two of 14 countries with the Queen as head of state within the British Commonwealth.

(whistle shrills) (spectators cheering) - The Commonwealth is absolutely critical for the British royal family.

It serves a continuity to a certain degree, a soft power continuity of the days of empire, of colonial rule.

And in terms of soft power to Britain and most importantly to the royal family, it could have been more important, it's vital.

- [Narrator] The tour echoed one William undertook at a similar age with his parents, Charles and Diana in 1983.

In Australia, William and Kate posed for photos in iconic places.

At Uluru, they eerily recreated shots of Charles and Diana almost 30 years before when the site was known as Ayers Rock.

Kate was emerging as the British royal's biggest star since Diana.

(bright music) And at home, another commoner was about to become suddenly royal, one who was already famous.

American actor Meghan Markle and William's brother, Prince Harry< fell in love.

A year later they were engaged.

- [Interviewer] Congratulations from all of us.

How are you both feeling?

- Um, yeah, thrilled.

I'm very glad it's not raining as well.

- [Interviewer] Meghan, how are you feeling?

- So happy.

Thanks.

- So, suddenly you have this Black woman, not just any Black woman, a really beautiful, brilliant, bright, successful Black woman who's dripping with her own degree of that American big stage soft power, joins the royal family.

- [Narrator] Almost from the start, the UK media and much of their audience took a dislike to Meghan.

(sombre instrumental music) She became the anti-Kate and Kate became part of the bitter feud between the soon to be Duchess of Sussex and the British press.

- The press loved to draw comparisons between the Duchess of Sussex and the Duchess of Cambridge.

I mean, they absolutely loved it.

They loved to hold Kate up on a pedestal and of course, Meghan Markle was the villain of the piece.

And the lead up to the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, you had all those stories about Meghan making Kate cry and Meghan gets what she wants, and they were always pitted against each other.

And Catherine was always the hero of the piece and Meghan Markle was always the villain of the piece.

(tense music) The negative press coverage of Meghan the Duchess of Sussex is rooted in racism, classism, and misogyny, and that's not going to change anytime soon.

- British media is pretty much a white industry for all intents and purposes.

So, the way in which they view and see the world is from a white perspective.

And so, when you then see a Meghan Markle who's a very, who's a Black woman coming into royal family, she's viewed again with that baggage of how the British media has viewed certain Black people for hundreds of years and with suspicion, suspected she might be a gang member or something because of that.

All these other stereotypes are not true of Meghan Markle but they just are, they're there, they're just there in the omnipresent.

(sombre music) - [Narrator] It wasn't only about race.

Meghan was more prepared to buck traditions than Kate and other commoners who married in.

She was American.

She didn't grow up knowing the royal rules.

(camera shutter clicking) - Harry's relationship with Meghan was pretty quick before they got married that Meghan hadn't been around the royal family events and occasions for years.

(crowd applauding) And I think that probably made a difference and I think she probably wasn't prepared for what it would be.

- [Narrator] Harry stood with Meghan against the press and his family further infuriating many Britons.

In 2020, Meghan and Harry withdrew from official royal duties and moved to California.

- I think we're in a really interesting phase because I think we've seen two royal women, Catherine and Meghan, who in many ways were similar in the sense that they didn't conform to the sort of traditional model of a royal bride because they both, you know, Catherine had come from a middle class family.

Meghan of course divorced with her own career.

Very, very different.

But actually one worked and one didn't.

- I mean, along with the Prince and Princess of Wales, these two people were young, right, young and glamorous and fun.

The four of them absolutely could have been a powerhouse.

Definitely could have reignited the interest and the love from the royals from a broader base of people, from the younger people, from people of colour.

- [Narrator] It seemed the British public could only respond to a commoner princess with love or disdain.

(gentle music) When he had first dated the princess, who would one day be queen, many Swedes doubted personal trainer Daniel Westling's suitability to be royal.

But at his wedding to Crown Princess Victoria, he showed he'd become an urbane, gracious prince.

- There have been times when Victoria's official duties have separated us.

In the morning after she had gone, I found 30 beautiful letters, one for every day she would be away.

(guests clapping) - [Narrator] 20 months later, the couple fulfilled their obligation to produce an heir.

(lighthearted piano music) (speaking in foreign language) (lighthearted instrumental music) (speaking in foreign language) - All over the place.

- [Narrator] From the start, Daniel was adamant his offspring would grow up in a close loving family as he had in rural Ockelbo.

(speaking in foreign language) - You can see that he is more into the ordinary life.

He wants Estelle and Oscar to know how it is to take the subway, and just use your own money to pay for things, to stand in a line.

- For Prince Daniel and Crown Princess Victoria, it is so natural that their children shall grow up with other children, not in a secluded royal bubble.

(lighthearted music) - [Narrator] Daniel and Victoria soon had a second child, Oscar.

After the birth of both his children, Daniel took paternity leave from his royal duties.

He was the first royal spouse to do so while all over Sweden, new fathers were doing the same thing.

- There's a signal, I think, to other fathers that it's important to you as a father to be with your kids.

But it's also important to yourself when you say that I'm on parental leave.

In a way it's easier to say no to a lot of engagements that are not necessary.

- [Narrator] Daniel wasn't just reinventing Swedish royal parenting, his Cinderfella wedding to Victoria was a commitment for life to playing a supporting role to his wife, the first Swedish man ever to sign up for the job.

No one knew quite how Daniel was going to do it.

- Prince Daniel, he gets a lot of questions about his feelings, how it is to always stand one or two steps behind his wife.

And in other countries that could be a bit sexist maybe, but I think in Sweden we feel kind of free to ask those questions and I don't think Daniel feels that it is sexist because we are curious, we want to know, this is a new situation for us.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] Daniel's role was new to Sweden's monarchy but not to Denmark's.

(camera shutter clicks) In 1967, Prince Henrik was on the way to becoming the first male consort to a Danish monarch when he married then Princess Margrethe, Frederik's mother.

- When he and Queen Margrethe are married, he was given the title prince consort and never king consort and that's something that didn't sit well with him.

- He was not very keen on standing behind his wife and he was very angry about that and talked very freely about it in the press, that he wanted to have the same royal status as his wife and have the title king.

- I think Prince Henrik being French and of a certain generation had a hard time with his wife being the one that caught all the interest and him as this macho figure that he was having to walk two steps behind his wife.

He couldn't quite cope with that.

- [Narrator] When he died, Henrik's family granted his request not to be buried with his wife of over 50 years, breaking a more than four centuries old tradition.

(sombre music) A generation later, Prince Daniel seemed not only to accept the traditional role reversal, but to be good at it.

(lighthearted music) - Pretty soon people realised that he was a good guy with good values.

No, he wanted to do a good job, if you can call being a prince a job, which he has proved by investing in foundations to make young people move.

(horn honks) (children screaming excitedly) - I think Daniel has done what has been expected of him that said that is he's become involved in charities sort of particularly dear to his heart, which are kind of health-related charities.

Daniel's role was made easier by the fact that Sweden, along with the rest of Scandinavia, is a relatively egalitarian and not a particularly macho society.

- [Narrator] Daniel brought what he'd learned as an ordinary child to the Swedish royal family.

Like other commoners marrying in, he helped modernise the monarchy.

- If monarchy becomes too disconnected from everyday modern society, if people feel like they are too much on a pedestal or they don't really understand regular people, et cetera, that can lead to this idea of, you know, why do we have a monarchy anyway and what are they really doing for us?

So the sense of royals marrying people from normal backgrounds, it does help to keep that contract between royalty and the people.

- [Narrator] Sweden was embracing a commoner prince consort to suit the country and the times.

(rhythmic instrumental music) Before her marriage, former party animal and single mom Mette-Marit Tjessem Hoiby had struggled to gain acceptance as a Norwegian royal.

(rhythmic instrumental music) The spectacle of her wedding to Crown Prince Haakon helped to turn the tide.

(spectators cheering) The couple kept Marius, Mette-Marit's son from a previous relationship, close throughout their wedding day.

And Norwegians responded warmly.

(spectators cheering) Soon the country would have another reason to cheer.

(camera shutter clicks) (rhythmic instrumental music) But even as Norway celebrated Mette-Marit's pregnancy, many press commentators also focused on the fact that this would not be the Princess' first child.

- I do think the fact that she was a single mother absolutely played into the negative press coverage of her, even though single mothers have been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around.

So instead of commending her for doing that and commending her for getting on with it, she was frowned upon and she was shunned because she was a single mother and that really played into the reporting of her.

(camera shutter clicks) (elegant instrumental music) - Whatever reporters wrote about Mette-Marit, her daughter Princess Ingrid, will one day be Norway's queen.

(elegant instrumental music) (camera shutter clicks) (elegant instrumental music) Two years later she gave birth to a son, Prince Sverre, and the family continued to embrace Marius, her eldest boy.

- Marius is part of the extended royal family.

Yeah, he's the son of the Crown Princess and he's the bonus son of the Crown Prince.

He doesn't have a title.

He is a commoner.

So, Mette-Marit has tried to keep him out of the limelight.

He doesn't have a role so he doesn't have to be in the limelight.

- [Narrator] A successful royal mother, Mette-Marit also worked hard for some charities.

She helped sufferers of HIV/AIDS and supported young Norwegians who were struggling.

(children cheering) - She's working for youth.

The Crown Prince and Mette-Marit wanted for their wedding day a gift from the people, which was one Krone from each person so that they could put that in a fund and that funds projects for young people.

She doesn't want people to be judged because of their past, go figure.

She doesn't want kids to fall out of place just because they're a bit different.

Again, go figure.

So she has used a lot of her past to try and make the future a bit better for kids today.

- [Narrator] A successful fundraiser, Mette-Marit wasn't always adept at politics.

(tense orchestral music) In 2012, she went to India to help friends who were collecting a baby born to a surrogate mother.

Surrogacy is banned in Norway.

(camera shutter clicks) Mette-Marit found herself at the centre of a political storm.

(tense orchestral music) - It's a very difficult line to walk because we live in a society where there's media everywhere, everybody can take pictures of them.

They have to come out and explain themselves if something goes wrong and things do go wrong.

- Whenever there's kind of negative press about members of the royal family, although it can feel quite superficial, there is always this danger that what if this triggers the bigger conversation, which is like, what on earth are we doing with a monarchy and these kind of principles being celebrated by their very presence really.

(lighthearted music) The monarchy as an institution makes no sense.

I mean it's an anachronistic institution that is based on white inherited privilege of unaccounted power.

People that are there simply by birth and not merit.

I mean it's against every kind of equality and inclusivity principle that we would subscribe to in the modern age.

- [Narrator] Prince Haakon defended Mette-Marit's support for her friend as selfless and well-intentioned.

Their solidarity helped play down the scandal.

- I think that one of the things that makes me a horrible republican is the fact that I can't not like Mette-Marit and Prince Haakon when they're a couple because you can see their unity, you can see how they work together.

You feel like they have control in their life and you feel like it's kind of safe to put the reputation of Norway as country in their hands.

- [Narrator] From a suspected single mother to a safe pair of hands, Mette-Marit had come a long way.

(gentle instrumental music) Mary Donaldson's wedding to Crown Prince Frederik, the heir to the Danish throne, celebrated her epic journey from ordinary Australian to future queen.

(spectators applauding) But now Mary had to turn her fairytale romance into a royal career, a job with great expectations.

(spectators cheering) - I think when it comes to royal partners across the board actually, the expectations are the same.

It should be that that royal partner gets stuck in, finds their cause, gets their feet under the table, and does what they're supposed to do, but also remembers what family they're part of.

They have to be elegant, they have to be regal.

All of that you must roll up your sleeves and get stuck in.

(tense instrumental music) - [Narrator] Right from the start, Mary was expected to represent Denmark at home and abroad.

(tense instrumental music) Mary and Frederik's first royal tour was to Great Britain.

(tense instrumental music) The schedule was hectic.

The press wrote endlessly about what Mary wore and how happy the couple seemed.

Formal events like opening an exhibition that featured Danish treasures were designed to promote Denmark to wield soft power.

(tense instrumental music) Frederik and Mary's trip continued a long tradition of royal tours.

- Royal tours are a really interesting phenomenon that have a very long history.

So, traditionally we can see that in the form of progress.

So Elizabeth I is a great example of this.

Every single summer she went on progress around the realm and if you look at modern times, this was a really important way of literally showing your face to the people and imprinting your authority, maintaining that sense of connection.

And also thinking about the political and diplomatic values of royal tours as well in terms of reinforcing diplomatic and trade connections, the so-called soft power of monarchy.

- Thinking about royal visits, it's about saying we would like the monarch or members of the royal family to go to a place to signify a warmth, a desire for friendship.

- And they're there to remind people of what they do, of who they are and why people should love them.

Yes, along the way they do support charitable causes in the countries that they visit, but it's all about them going out to reminding people why they are there.

And that to them is supremely important.

Being seen to be believed.

(elegant orchestral music ends) - [Narrator] Being seen around the world and back home in Denmark built Mary's confidence as a working royal.

(mellow orchestral music) But she had another vital role.

(mellow orchestral music) In April, 2005, the world learned Mary was pregnant.

- In that respect, Crown Princess Mary has proven herself perfect by having first a son, which is the heir to the throne, Prince Christian.

- [Photographer] Right this, Mary, but then through.

Still more first to go.

(speaking in foreign language) (tense orchestral music) - [Narrator] Three more children followed.

Mary and Frederik had excelled themselves as providers of heirs.

But as parents, they would have to reconcile their very different family backgrounds.

- Crown Princess Mary comes from a very ordinary family in Tasmania with strong family values and the Crown Prince experienced a rather cold childhood being quite distanced from his own parents being brought up by nannies and things like that.

- [Narrator] At Frederik's christening, his nanny passed him to his mother for the occasion, Margrethe was extremely busy being queen.

(camera shutter clicks) His father was distant.

Frederik endured the traditional chilly upbringing of European monarchs.

- Traditionally, royal parents would not have had very much to do with their children.

They would be looked after by nannies, they would be educated by tutors, and it was very much about an upbringing being quite austere that you would be brought in to see your parents dressed up and smart, and you wouldn't have the rough and tumble of normal children messing around with their parents.

(melancholic instrumental music) (sombre instrumental music) - [Narrator] All the commoners would try to give their children ordinary, loving childhoods even though their ups and downs often took place in public.

And outside their families, it could be even more difficult to balance royal tradition with the modern world.

(dramatic orchestral music) Kate and William's Royal tour of Jamaica, a Caribbean island of which his grandmother was head of state, would reveal just how tricky 21st century monarchy could be.

(crowd chattering) William's forebears had seized Jamaica, enforced slavery, and reaped vast profits.

Many Jamaicans wanted much more than a royal wave.

- As representatives of the head of state, how these two young white people now going to be here saying we are going to kowtow to them and we're going to bend and bow and kneel to them.

Those days are done.

The monarchies are relic.

- They represent a certain kind of history that is unpleasant for our people.

- The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's tour of the Caribbean in 2022 was widely perceived as a bit of a PR disaster.

(tense dramatic music) - It was a disastrous visit because they weren't welcomed as these benevolent royal family in the past that you would've seen.

They were welcomed as vicious colonisers who had never taken any steps to try and repair the damage that had been done to them.

- And it became clear very quickly that they hadn't done their preparation, that they hadn't thought about the issues of reparations, of the Jamaicans' demands for some kind of apology for the legacies of colonialism slavery.

(tense dramatic music) - And the other problem for it too is that if you're going around the world and you're not admired and you're not really bringing Britain the soft power dynamite that we expect you to bring as a member of the royal family, the question then becomes, if you're not bringing soft power, what do you bring to the table?

And the answer is nothing.

- [Narrator] William expressed profound sorrow for the appalling atrocity of slavery, but failed to actually say, sorry.

Kate's grace and charm were powerless in the face of these weighty issues.

- I think they think that perhaps they transcend these issues, that it doesn't affect them, but that is not the case.

You know, people know that this family can and should be held to account for any wrongdoings that they have done, you know, whether that's colonialism, slavery, or something else entirely.

- It's important to recognise that monarchy represents history and so, they carry with them that tradition, that legacy of the past.

And so, some of that is really positive things, but also they have all of the negative baggage of their predecessors.

(tense music) - [Narrator] Soon, tradition and history would push Kate into a new royal role.

(tense music) Queen Elizabeth died in September 2022.

Catherine became the Princess of Wales.

Without Harry and Meghan, the monarchy relied heavily on William and Kate for royal duties.

(sombre instrumental music) (spectators clapping) (dramatic orchestral music) - [Kate] Huge congratulations.

I believe so passionately in community projects.

- [Narrator] Kate threw herself into the extra work.

(dramatic orchestral music) - As the Princess of Wales, we see the template for our future queen.

I think we see what matters to her, what she cares about, what drives her, her investment in young people, her determination to tackle stigmas like addiction and mental health where she's really made very real inroads into difficult subjects.

- She has allowed the monarchy to modernise, to refresh its image and itself that she is the future.

William married to Catherine with something that was fresh about them and they do seem quite different and distinctive from the generations before them.

(guests clapping) (bright orchestral music) - [Narrator] Kate's fresh approach to her hectic royal life seemed unstoppable.

But soon two surprises in quick succession would rock the British royal family.

(bright orchestral music intensifies) (tense orchestral music) Swedes were surprised when cracks seemed to appear in Daniel and Victoria's relationship.

Allegations surfaced that Daniel had been unfaithful to the Crown Princess after nearly 15 years of marriage.

(slow tense music) - And in the beginning the first weeks it was just this gossip site who was writing about it.

The main media, the official media didn't write a word about it because whoever I called, whoever I talked to, I could not find any substance in those rumours.

(tense orchestral music) - [Narrator] Journalists stood by the public interest of their story.

They noted that the state of the royal marriage had implications for the Swedish constitution.

Pressure built on the royal couple, especially Daniel.

(tense orchestral music) - And then suddenly the Royal Court and Victoria and Daniel, they took a decision because the rumours started to grow bigger.

It was actually the perfect storm.

(speaking in foreign language) - I think what was interesting is the way that the royal couple actually addressed it directly.

They gave interviews, they went on social media, on Instagram to deny that he was having an affair, that to deny that there was any problem in their marriage, certainly to deny there were any plans for divorce.

(tense music) - [Narrator] The scandal subsided.

But it highlighted the importance of this modern marriage to the stability of Sweden.

Something that would only become more crucial when Victoria becomes queen and Daniel prince consort.

- It is very important to see Prince Daniel and the Crown Princess Victoria happy.

Victoria's going to be our head of state, the future queen, and we want them to be happy.

It is also a part of this big picture of the royal family and the monarchy that is important for the royal family of course that it is a happy couple.

The monarchy and the royal family, they stands for more traditional values in life.

Yeah, to have a happy couple is very important for this image.

- [Narrator] So far, Daniel and Victoria's image as a mostly happy couple remained intact.

(tense orchestral music) The happiness of Denmark's royal family was about to be severely shaken.

Under financial pressure from COVID-19 and other factors, some Danes called for the government to slim down spending on royals.

- Slim down monarchy it kind of gets used in all kinds of different contexts.

I mean, in some sense it's about having less public spend on it, so potentially, having less royal residences.

And then there's a sense of slimming down of active working members of the royal family.

- Pressure to reduce the number of working members of the Danish royal family would create bitter divisions and forced Crown Princess Mary to take a stand when her mother-in-law, the Queen, made controversial calls.

- Queen Margrethe announced that in the future, only Prince Christian, the oldest son of Crown Prince Princess Mary, and Crown Prince Frederik, the future king, will be the one who will get money.

(tense orchestral music) The rest of the grandchildren, they would have to lead normal lives and make a living for themselves.

- [Narrator] Then in late 2022, Queen Margrethe went a step further removing the prince and princess titles from Mary and Frederik's nieces and nephew, the four children of Frederik's brother, Joachim.

- [Commentator] And that caused a big turmoil because her youngest son was not happy with the decision and he complained in public about it.

And there was actually a crisis in the royal family where it was quite apparent that they were not on speaking terms anymore.

(tense orchestral music) - [Narrator] Joachim looked to his older brother for help, but it was Mary who spoke out in support of the Queen.

- Crown Princess Mary was actually the first royal to publicly voice her support for Queen Margrethe's decision to strip her grandchildren of their royal titles.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Commentator] She then went on to say that when the time comes, her and Crown Prince Frederik will actually look at the titles of their own children so maybe one day they might, too, lose their prince and princess titles.

(sombre music) - Danes approved of the decision.

They understood that in the future, what the queen is trying to do is slimming down the royal family and trying to cast light on the main stem of the tree and the Crown Prince and their son, the future king.

- [Narrator] Mary had helped protect the privileges of her own children and won the at times bitter royal family feud.

(sombre music fades) In 2019, Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf had also trimmed the number of royals supported by the state cutting off funds for Daniel and Victoria's nieces and nephews.

- He decided that the children of Prince Carl Philip and the children of Princess Madeleine is no longer a part of the royal house.

They can choose whatever they want to study or work with.

They can travel, they can do whatever they want, but they can never expect to get money from the civilists.

So, it's a give and take in that case.

(camera shutter clicks) - [Narrator] Only Daniel and Victoria's children would remain part of the royal house and be paid by Swedish taxpayers.

Sweden's royals accepted the cuts quietly.

(sombre dramatic music) And in Denmark's divided royal family, Queen Margrethe prepared to make another decision that would change the course of Mary's royal life.

(tense music) Mette-Marit had been a reliable royal for more than 15 years when serious illness struck.

She was diagnosed with chronic pulmonary fibrosis.

(camera shutter clicks) (tense music) - It's an invisible disease.

She had to be open.

She had to tell the people that, "Hey, I got a disease.

It's a chronic disease and I have to be off work from time to time, and it's really difficult to know when."

(sombre music) - [Narrator] Norway and Haakon rallied behind Mette-Marit.

Eventually she returned to work and spoke openly about plans to continue to support Haakon when he became king.

The respect Mette-Marit earned for the way she handled her illness showed how far she had come.

- 'Cause I'm a little bit nervous.

How I shall I address you?

- Crown princess if you talk about me, but if you talk to me, you can call me Mette.

- Okay, very good.

(Mette-Marit laughs) - [Narrator] At last, Mette-Marit seemed ready to be queen.

(tense dramatic music) Ready or not, Denmark's Princess Mary was on the brink of being crowned.

(speaking in foreign language) - [Narrator] The Queen's retirement cleared the way for Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary to become King and Queen of Denmark.

(spectators cheering) Some royal watchers thought the timing was more than just a coincidence.

Just months before, news had broken that Crown Prince Frederik was having an affair with a Mexican socialite.

(slow tense music) - I think when it comes to stories of affairs in royal families, I think people love the salaciousness of that.

You know, we hold royal families up to a higher standard than we hold our own families and ourselves.

So when this happens, we think, "Oh my gosh, how could they?"

(camera shutter clicks) (slow tense music) - [Narrator] Photos of Frederik and Genoveva Casanova in Madrid shattered the fairytale narrative of Mary's royal life so far.

- With the royals, we don't have to know everything about them.

So what goes on between a couple after many years of marriage, to be honest, I don't really care as long as they keep it to themselves so we can preserve that perfect picture of them.

Because if they're not perfect, which is a pretty hard assignment, if they're not perfect, we can't read into them all that we need to read into them.

They can't really play out their part.

- [Narrator] Some commentators believe Queen Margrethe's sudden announcement was an attempt to distract from the scandal and bind Mary and Frederik in their new roles.

A monarchy without the popular Princess Mary, it seemed, was not an option.

(melancholic music) (bright orchestral music) Mary and Frederik's coronation pushed aside stories about their marital woes.

In January 2024, Queen Mary of Denmark emerged onto the balcony of Christiansborg Palace with King Frederik to the acclaim of millions of Danes.

Their newly minted royal family heralded the future of the Danish monarchy and confirmed Mary's vital role in it.

- Of course, Mary Donaldson from Tasmania, the a little bit confused girl that entered the scene at the beginning of the century is a totally different woman today.

- Mary had to give up a lot when she moved to Denmark.

She had to change religion, she has to give up her Australian citizenship, she had to start an entirely new life with new friends and a new language.

But she's done it all so well.

- I think we love royal love stories because deep down inside us, we think that commoner could be me.

I could marry into the royal family one day and we love that little dream that it gives us, that little bit of stardust.

And I think that magic is what keeps us interested obsessively in the royals.

(tense music) - [Narrator] For more than 20 years, Kate had starred in the British royal saga.

And then Princess Catherine stopped appearing in public.

She went to hospital for treatment, then home to recuperate, but kept the cause of her illness private.

So, the media filled the information gap.

(pensive music) A few weeks later, King Charles spoke much more openly about his health.

He announced he had cancer.

(pensive music) - I think the royal family, when it comes to the two health issues, they've actually handled it quite differently.

If we look at King Charles III first, it talks about having an enlarged prostate and then revealed his cancer diagnosis.

And through his treatment, we saw pictures of him meeting different dignitaries from around the world.

We saw pictures of him opening the cards and the gifts that he received from well wishers.

Now, when it comes to the Princess of Wales, we heard about her abdominal surgery and then we really got nothing else, and we didn't see the Princess of Wales.

She disappeared.

(tense piano music) - [Narrator] After three months of privately convalescing at home, the rumours and conspiracy theories about the princess's health and whereabouts became deafening.

Princess Catherine reappeared to set the record straight.

- [Kate] In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous.

The surgery was successful.

However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present.

This of course came as a huge shock and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family.

- [Narrator] Expecting to be left alone with her family when struck by serious illness had been, perhaps, Kate's last connection to her life as a commoner.

In trying and failing to preserve a vestige of privacy, she laid bare the price of being royal.

- I think one has to always remember that yes, these people are members of the royal family, but actually they will also just people, and in this case people that have health issues.

And at the time, there was speculation about the state of her relationship with William, whether her medical records were being accessed, where was she?

And I think you can only feel for her really, that she felt she had to release that video statement.

Of course, on reflection, people are like, "Oh, that's awful that she felt that she had to do that."

(pensive music) But I think the question will be, at what point in the next few weeks or months does that start again?

(rousing orchestral music) - [Narrator] The four commoners had been utterly changed by royal life.

(rousing orchestral music) And by successfully marry into families that would never have accepted them only a few generations before, they've changed European monarchy.

But perhaps it will be their children who truly transform it.

- I think there is going to be, at some point, a necessary coming together in terms of this age-old institution and the future of society, democracy of politics, about who people want to be represented by.

There will come a point where a member of the royal family won't toe the line.

What we haven't had is an heir to saying, "I don't wanna get married."

Or "Actually, I'm gay."

Or, "Well, actually I can't have children" or, "I don't want to have children."

And I think that that generation could be the ones that really bring about change.

(crowd chattering) ♪ Hold me close, I need you ♪ So I want you in my dreams ♪ Hold me close, I need you ♪ So I want you in my dreams (melancholic piano music)