A touching connection to Denmark was discovered on Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s 18th birthday when Queen Margrethe revealed that she designed the young royal’s cypher in 2004.
The Danish Royal House shared birthday congratulations on its official Instagram account, noting that the cypher Princess Ingrid Alexandra has used —that of a stylised ‘I’ and ‘A’ underneath a crown—was designed by Queen Margrethe as a gift.
A cypher is used by members of a royal family as an identifier, and by the reigning monarch of each realm on official documents, buildings, and for other functions.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra’s birthday came with multiple birthday offerings from organisations within Norway, and she also received two major honours from her grandfather, King Harald: she was named a Dame Grand Cross of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and King Harald V’s House Order, which is awarded to female members of the Norwegian Royal Family.
Princess Ingrid Alexandra also attended her first Council of State, accompanying her grandfather and father, Crown Prince Haakon, to their traditional weekly meeting. It marked the first time that a royal other than the Monarch and first in line to the throne was also in attendance.
New official portraits of King Harald, Crown Prince Haakon and Princess Ingrid Alexandra were released afterwards.
Finally, Princess Ingrid Alexandra sat down for her first official interview with Norway’s national broadcaster, NRK, where she said, “I am very grateful for the opportunity I have, and think that I can do a lot with it. One can of course dream away and wonder what a completely different life would have been like. I do too. But that’s not the life I live, so it’s hard to imagine not being in the role I’m in.”
She also admitted that she has “a lot of love for Norway” and thinks “we are the best country, definitely. There are many reasons for this. We have all the times, we have snow, we have summer. We are very good in the Winter Olympics… Yes, we have a lot of good.”
Princess Ingrid Alexandra was given her own office in the Royal Palace and will reportedly begin to take on engagements, though her main focus in the coming years will be her education, which she decided not to discuss in her interview.
