Queen Margrethe of Denmark, 86 years old, has undergone angioplasty after being admitted urgently this Thursday, May 14, due to angina, according to the Danish royal house, which highlighted in a statement on Friday that she is recovering “well.” “Her Majesty Queen Margrethe, who was admitted on Thursday to the Kingdom Hospital (Copenhagen), has undergone balloon angioplasty of a coronary artery,” the institution stated.
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Nevertheless, the Danish royal house has confirmed that the queen, who abdicated in favor of her son Frederik X in January 2024, will remain hospitalized for a few days. “Her Majesty is having a good recovery,” the statement says. On Thursday, in the note shared by the institution to announce Margrethe of Denmark’s hospital admission, it was already assumed that it was not serious, but it was warned that the queen would spend “the weekend under observation” at the capital’s hospital center. “She is tired, but in good spirits,” it said.
Margrethe retains the title of queen since her abdication and continues to participate in official events — although with a much reduced schedule. Her unexpected announcement that she would leave the throne after 52 years came during her traditional New Year’s Eve televised speech. “I have decided that now is the right time. On January 14, 2024, 52 years after succeeding my beloved father, I will cease to be the queen of Denmark,” she announced on December 31, 2023. Two years earlier, she had celebrated her 50 years on the throne, which made her the only monarch in Europe and the longest-reigning, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September 2022. The queen, who had repeatedly stated that her work was “for life,” then appealed to her age, the problems derived from a complicated back surgery, and the need to give way to the new generation to justify her retirement.
Her last hospital admission was on May 8, 2025, when she was hospitalized as a precautionary measure due to a cold. The medical team decided at that time to keep her under observation to ensure her well-being and treat the ailment. A few months earlier, in September 2024, she suffered a fall that caused an injury to her cervical vertebrae and a fracture in her left hand. In February 2023, when she was still queen, she underwent complex back surgery, from which it took months to recover and which she referred to in her abdication announcement. She is also a former heavy smoker: she quit smoking in 2006, but only publicly, as she has never done so privately.
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The last time Queen Margrethe was seen at an official event was on April 30, when she traveled to Stockholm to celebrate the 80th birthday of King Carl Gustaf of Sweden and participate in several planned events, where she met with other representatives of European monarchies, such as the Norwegian kings and Queen Sofia. A few days earlier, on April 18, she also accompanied her family to the confirmation of two of her eight grandchildren, Vincent and Josephine, the twins of Kings Frederik and Mary of Denmark.
She was scheduled to participate in the celebrations organized on May 26 in honor of King Frederik X’s birthday, when it is tradition for the entire royal family to come out and greet citizens from one of the balconies of Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen. However, it is currently unknown whether her health will allow her to attend the celebrations.
To ascend the throne, Margrethe Alexandrine Thorhildur Ingrid, her full name, needed the country to hold a referendum and approve a constitutional amendment allowing women to reign, making her the heir of Frederik IX, who, having no male children, fought for six years for his eldest daughter to be able to reign. She has two sisters, Benedikte and Anne Marie, the latter married to the late Constantine of Greece, who was the brother of Queen Sofia of Spain.