Wednesday morning, here in Australia, it was reported that the Spanish magazine Lecturas had exclusive photos of Crown Prince Frederik and Genoveva Casanova in Madrid while Crown Princess Mary was in the USA on official business.
It was said Frederik went to Madrid with a group of University friends, to see the Pablo Picasso exhibition at a museum there.
The information changed to it then being one friend and that this friend suddenly became ill … Covid … who then asked his friend, Ms Casanova, to stand in for him. She is an art expert and was available to do so.
This group of friends, and this single friend who came down with Covid, have not been identified, and have not come forward to corroborate this version.
Anyway, Frederik and the lady visited the exhibition, which one of our co-posters, who lives in Madrid, has said is nothing special, two small rooms.
Frederik and Genoveva then walked through a park where a photographer recognised her … she is quite well-known there … and took a photo on his phone. He sent that photo to his agency as
who the man was.
A fellow photographer from the agency knew it was Frederik because he, the second photographer, had been the one to take the photos of the Crown Prince family earlier this year when they had a holiday on Chris and Michaela Meehan’s yacht, “Silver Lady”, down on the Spanish island of Ibiza.
From the park four photographers became involved in following the couple and ta
photos. It is not known if the couple were aware or not at this stage.
There were security men with them at this point, from the Danish Embassy in Madrid, not the Danish PET officers from Denmark.
The couple went to Ms Casanova’s flat and stayed there from 7.00pm until 9.00pm with the photographers now present constantly until the next day.
The couple changed clothes for the evening and went out to a restaurant. It has been named, but I can’t think of it at the moment.
That restaurant has a flamenco show, but it isn’t reported if they watched it or not. It has been reported that they dined in private behind a curtain with a waiter standing outside.
The flamenco show finished at midnight and the couple remained at the restaurant until 1.00am.
They were then followed back to Ms Casanova’s apartment and the photographers stayed outside in their car until Frederik emerged in the morning at 8.20am.
There was no car present to pick Frederik up in the morning and he was seen wal
the street for about ten minutes before using his phone, and then a car from the Danish Embassy came.
He was driven straight to the T4 terminal at the airport, which is for private jets.
Ms Casanova put out a statement threatening legal action, and saying Frederik stayed at an hotel. This was before the series of photos were released the following day.
When the photos showing Frederik had spent the night at her apartment came out, and without security or Embassy protection staff with him, she left her home and went into hiding somewhere.
The couple were photographed entering her apartment a few minutes apart, and not together, as though they may then have been aware of being followed, and didn’t want to be snapped together.
Information has since come out that Frederik was in Madrid for several days, not just the day they were seen.
Also, information that they had met each other previously and not just at the time the friend became ill and needed some-one to step in. It has also been reported that Frederik has gone to Madrid previously.
There are other bits to this such as Ms Casanova not being able to buy the photos to stop their publication, too expensive.
And that the original University friends/friend was a furphy put out by Hola magazine to spoil Lecturas magazine’s exclusive and muddy the waters.
Ms Casanova has photos on her Instagram account of a trip she took to Copenhagen earlier in October.
Some other details are floating about of where the couple actually met … a mutual Mexican friend, or a high class hunting trip in Germany/Austria.
It was big here in Australia when it first came out, TV and radio, but without further developments there is nothing at the moment to fuel the story further.
Ms Casanova may or may not be doing a deal to give her story to Hola magazine, she is said to have a journalist friend there.
There is also a friend of hers with a TV show in Spain who has been reporting, can’t think of her name or show at the moment, but it is in this thread.
I would say our media here in Australia took the view that it wasn’t innocent and that we are “Team Mary”.
I think most of us down here are just sad about it all, gobsmacked when it first came out, and now just sad.