Kate Middleton dons her country casual in Copenhagen

The visit is due to pay tribute to the historic ties Britain shares with Denmark and celebrate the countries’ joint jubilees – the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Golden Jubilee of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, both of which fall in 2022. 

Crown Princess Mary opted for a chic monochrome look for the occasion, donning a simple black dress with a contrasting white coat for the outing.

It’s a look the royal has worn on more than one occasion, most recently for the presentation of the Christmas Seal in November last year. 

Meanwhile Queen Margrethe wore a checked skirt and a blue pussybow blouse with a simple black jacket.  

Meeting the Queen and Crown Princess Mary today, the Duchess opted for Catherine Walker, who is one of her favourite designers.

While the royal is known for recycling her favourite pieces, the coat is a new addition to her wardrobe that’s not been seen before.

Online, it is described as ‘a sharply tailored gunmetal grey Birdseye cashmere and wool coat, with black lapels and cuffs, based on an 18th century naval frockcoat.’

Kate also appeared to be wearing one of her favourite sets of earrings – classic baroque drop pearls from British jewellery designer Annoushka Ducas.

Later Kate and Mary walked across the impressive Amalienborg courtyard and waved at around 100 members of the public gathered in the open space as they made their way to Frederik VIII’s Palace for a private lunch.

The duchess and crown princess, who have met a number of times in the UK and Denmark, went on to visit the Danner Crisis Centre.

The shelter helps women and children who have been exposed to domestic violence. It is supported by the Mary Foundation, founded by the crown princess in 2007.

Earlier today, Kate embraced the outdoor life that forms the backdrop to teaching for many youngsters in the country who thrive on being given the freedom to play in the open air.

In a wooded area on the outskirts of Copenhagen, the duchess, dressed for the bitterly cold but sunny conditions in boots, jeans, a polo-neck jumper and jacket, took on the challenge of splitting a log after watching five-year-olds complete the task.

Meanwhile the royal’s brunette locks looked sleek around her shoulders and she added a touch of dark eye makeup. 

The mother-of-three also kept her accessories to a minimum for the outing, instead opting for a simple pair of gold hoop earrings.    

Surrounded by children dressed in outdoor onesies, teaching assistant Carla Bro advised Kate on her stance and grip and, laughing, the duchess struck the wood.

Kate took just three blows to split the log and was applauded for her efforts by Ms Bro, 21, who said afterwards: ‘She was very good, she had the right stance with both hands on the hammer and had good focus.

‘She asked how we deal with risky play and how we keep things safe. We have safety rules and we teach the children they should not be afraid of tasks but treat them with respect.’

The duchess knelt down to meet the five and six-year-olds when she first arrived at Stenurten, a combined nursery and kindergarten near Copenhagen, and one little boy made her smile when he shouted out ‘hello Kate’.

When one youngster stepped up to split a log, Kate told him ‘you’re so strong’ as he whacked the wood, and she clapped as he let out a sigh of relief when it finally split.  

Kate joined other activities and went on a brief woodland walk with a ‘wing buddy’, which sees a youngster paired with an older child to gain comfort and support.

She held the hand of a little girl who also held the hand of Maibritt Iverson, head of Stenurten, and the trio followed pairs of children as they ran into the wooded area.

At the end of the event, a mindfulness session was held to relax the children. The duchess sat with them in a circle around a fire covered by a wood canopy as everyone stared into the flames.

During her visit to the Forest Kindergarten, Kate heard about their approach to learning, which focuses on social and emotional development helping children to build self-awareness, strengthen relationships with others and understand their value in society, rather than focusing on academic skills such as numeracy and literacy.  

She also learned about the Danish use of nature and the outdoors in these settings, which is widely recognized as having huge benefits on children’s mental health and wellbeing and is a concept which Her Royal Highness has championed through her own work. 

The mother-of-three was also given an overview of the approach taken by this Kindergarten before participating in a number of outdoor activities with the children, including wood chopping.  

This morning, the Duchess’ official Twitter account shared a tweet about her whirlwind trip, reading: ‘Yesterday was all about understanding the very earliest stages of a child’s development here in Denmark.

‘Today we move on to learn about the next stage of their life, focusing on children’s mental health and wellbeing. 

 It is the first time she has taken the work of her foundation, which she launched in June, to the international stage. 

The duchess travelled by a scheduled flight to the capital Copenhagen yesterday but it is thought her plane was delayed by around 30 minutes. 

Yesterday, she made up some time for her first visit to the University of Copenhagen to meet researchers from the Copenhagen Infant Mental Health Project (CIMHP), which aims to promote the mental wellbeing of, and relationships between, infants and their parents.

The Duchess looked ready for business in a vibrant red Zara blazer, which she previously wore to watch England football team play last summer.  

 She wore the jacket over a smart white V-neck blouse with frill detailing. 

Keeping her accessories simple, Kate added a pair of £150 Mother-of-Pearl Drop Huggie Hoop Earrings from Maria Black and a £120 Nura Pearl Necklace by Monica Vinader. 

The Duchess heard more about an innovative screening tool, the Alarm Distress Baby Scale, used to help health visitors identify infants at risk of adverse social and emotional development.

The duchess met with leading researchers running the initiative and will hear from health visitors who are implementing these tools in their work. 

Alongside the screening tool, academics have launched the Understanding Your Baby research project which provides further training for health visitors so they can help new parents as they begin to notice and interpret their babies’ behavioural cues. 

At Copenhagen’s Children’s Museum the duchess met a few of the 1,300 first-time parents benefiting from the project, begun in 2019 and ending in July, that involves more than 200 health workers. 

Kate’s final event of the day was a trip to the Lego Foundation PlayLab at University College Copenhagen where she joined students, training to be early years professionals, taking part in activities. 

During the visit she showcased her playful side. Giggling Kate whizzed down a winding tube slide instead of taking the stairs, raising her hands in the air as she shot out the bottom.  

 Screaming with laughter after emerging from the slide, she joked with the press saying ‘you stood far enough away!’ adding ‘In the spirit of where I am, I had to do it.’

After chatting to parents with their babies at Copenhagen’s Children’s Museum, the duchess confessed she felt ‘broody’ and joked husband William worries about her working with under one-year-olds because she returns home wanting ‘another one’.  

She also joked that her children – Prince George, eight, Princess Charlotte, six and Prince Louis, three, were ‘very jealous’ they weren’t able to come along. 

 Her schedule will focus on innovative initiatives and projects which support children in their growth, particularly their social and emotional development, as well as their parents and the wider communities surrounding them. 

Throughout the visit, The Duchess will have the opportunity to meet with a broad range of people including children and families, leading researchers, representatives from academia, and those working in the early education sector. 

Denmark is a beacon of best practice with its approach to early childhood as well as consistently ranking near the top of countries with the happiest people in the world. 

Plenty in Commoner! How Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, 50, and Kate Middleton, 40, have strikingly similar approaches to life – from elegant style to carving out their roles after marrying into royalty

The has looked delighted to be back in the company of the Danish – and particularly Crown Princess Mary – during her whistlestop two-day visit to Copenhagen this week.

This morning saw Kate Middleton officially welcomed to Denmark by Queen Margrethe II and Australian-born Crown Princess Mary at Christian IX’s Palace, and from the official photos taken, it’s clear that the English royal is very much at ease with her Danish counterparts. 

Indeed, the Duchess, 40, and Crown Princess Mary, 50, both wearing their long brunette locks flowing and opting for smart coat dresses – Kate wearing a £3,000 Catherine Walker coat dress while Mary opted for a chic white number that she’s worn on previous outings – might have been mistaken for sisters. 

The pair, neither of whom were born into royal life, looked entirely comfortable in each other’s company as they strolled in the sunshine outside the official royal palace in the Danish capital, chatting as they went. 

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In marriage, both women have thrown themselves wholeheartedly into their demanding roles, transforming from the cheerful, outdoorsy young women they once were into the elegant and thoughtful spear-carriers of their nation’s monarchies.

While Kate Middleton’s middle-class Home Counties upbringing was not completely unlike that of Prince William — boarding school, skiing holidays, university at St Andrews — the Princess, as the former Mary Elizabeth Donaldson, came from a very different place to her husband, Crown Prince Frederik.

Born to a Scottish mathematics professor and his wife on the small island of Tasmania in Australia, thousands of miles from the spectacular Frederik VIII’s Palace of Amalienborg that is now her home in Copenhagen, hers was a completely different world.

She met Prince Frederik, now 53, in a pub called The Slip Inn in Sydney. She was then a 28-year-old sales director for a luxury estate agent, and he was visiting Australia for the 2000 Olympic Games.

Famous for dating Scandi models and even a pop star, it was apparently love at first sight for ‘Fred’.

They married in 2004 and Mary was taken under the wing of Frederik’s mother, the formidable Queen Margrethe II, herself a graduate of Cambridge and the Sorbonne.

Similar to Kate, Mary knuckled down to the job, was soon fluent in Danish and has established herself as a hugely popular figure.

But for all the preparation, neither she nor Kate could possibly have imagined the lives they would lead as the first commoners to marry their country’s future rulers — and bear their children.

(Mary, now 50, has four — two sons and a two daughters — to Kate’s two boys and a girl.) 

And both have acclimatised to the accompanying scrutiny with aplomb. Earlier today, Kate proved once again that she can turn her hand to whatever a royal engagement requires. In casual attire, she visited the Stenurten Forest Kindergarten and was snapped chopping wood alongside a group of children.

The mother-of-three appeared relaxed in a grey jumper, which she paired with her £209 green Seeland wax jacket and a simple pair of black jeans. She finished off her look with her £170 boots from celeb-loved brand Blundstone.

The royal was seen splitting taking part in several activities at the forest kindergarten, including splitting wood with a hammer and racing around the grounds hand-in-hand with local children.

Later today, the Duchess will join Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, 49, and visit a project supported by the Page 2 of 2 Mary Foundation, founded in 2007 by the Crown Princess, to protect vulnerable women and children from domestic violence.

Kate and Mary have met on a number of previous occasions, including at Royal Ascot in 2016 and on William and Kate’s joint visit to the Danish capital in 2011.

The Duchess will also learn about how Denmark promotes infant mental wellbeing alongside physical health, and how it harnesses the power of nature, relationships and playful learning in the first five years of life.