The path to our interview with the Danish queen takes us across a cobblestone courtyard and past a black Bentley with an open trunk, parked in the palace garage. Then we climb a winding oak staircase to the second floor of Amalienborg Palace, where the walls are adorned with French tapestries and oil portraits of the queen's ancestors. When Margrethe II, 76, greets us in her private library, there is a silver ashtray on the glass table in front of her. The queen, who is a professed chain smoker, has ruled her country for 44 years, and she is known as a down-to-earth and unpretentious person. On this day, she is wearing a simple white cotton dress with gold buttons, and earrings shaped like daisies. Margrethe II rarely gives interviews, and the queen makes a point of not discussing politics. » | Interview Conducted By Manfred Ertel and Britta Sandberg | Friday, September 30, 2016
