We always knew Crown Princess Mary of Denmark’s royal romance with Prince Frederik was a modern-day fairytale — and it turns out this story also happens to be a little magical, or as the Aussie-born royal recently shared, it was written in her cards! The future Queen of Denmark revealed that someone predicted her now famous relationship, wait for it, before she even met her now-husband, Fred. This week, Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad shared an excerpt from Prince Frederik’s new official biography, Under the Bar, and the royal couple has shed new light on that fateful first meeting in Sydney back in 2000. The mom-of-four spoke to the author Jens Andersen about her life when she Mary Donaldson.

Mary, now 45, was a 28-year-old Aussie advertising executive casually roaming around a local flea market in Sydney when she stumbled across a tarot card reader. Young Mary decided to give the fortune teller a go and the soothsayer placed a series of tarot cards in front of her on the table. From Mary’s accounts, the cards looked rather traditional and seemed to date back to mid-15th century Europe. Turning them over, the wise woman dropped truth bomb after truth bomb. The fortune teller then told Mary that she’d leave her dream job that she’d recently landed for a man, the man would be worldly and from abroad, and Mary would become famous and move to Europe.

prince frederik and princess mary of denmark getty images

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Mary confessed in her husband’s autobiography, “So I left there and thought, ‘Well yes, that was a lot of fun, but nothing more. But I’ve always been interested in the spiritual… In mystery and fate.” Not long after this event, Mary, a believer in fate, got rewarded! The year was 2000 and Mary Donaldson was enjoying the best of Sydney during the Olympics. She happened to meet a guy, Fred, at a local pub. They got on swimmingly, chatting all night, and Fred seemed like a decent down-to-earth bloke, with (we’re taking a tiny leap) a very hot European accent. “The first time we met, we shook hands,” she recalled. “I didn’t know he was the prince of Denmark. Half an hour later, someone came up to me and said, ‘Do you know who these people are?’” They danced all night long before Fred dropped her home and asked for her phone number.

For months, their long-distance romance played out over the phone and Mary admits she’d wander the streets of Sydney listening to Dido’s “Here With Me” on her Discman when she really missed her royal beau. The pair obviously fell deeply and madly in love, and four years later in 2004, they got hitched in an epic fairytale royal wedding. Becoming Princess Mary, she had to quit her job and move, for her man, to Europe’s Denmark. It’s been nearly 14 years of wedded bliss. Together, the pair has four children, 12-year-old Prince Christian, 10-year-old Princess Isabella, and six-year-old twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine. For Prince Frederik’s part, he may respect fate but the heir to the Danish throne is a firm believer in carving your own destiny.

“I believe in fate,” he said in his new book. “Then I look back on all the exciting things that have happened to me, it’s not random. But I don’t try to look ahead and say, ‘Can I predict my destiny for the next two years?’ I don’t want to talk to anyone who claims they can. No one should read anything about me and my future.” So Fred and Mary are opposites… And you what Paula Abdul has to say about that!

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This post was written by Chloe Lal. It originally appeared on our sister site, Now to Love.