The latest on Queen Margrethe’s health after fall leads to hospital stay

Queen Margrethe has been discharged from the Rigshospitalet today following a fall on Wednesday at Fredensborg Castle.

The Danish Royal Court has shared an update that the queen “is in good spirits and, according to the circumstances, is doing well.”

Queen Margrethe’s engagements have been cancelled while she convalesces back at Fredensborg Castle.

The former monarch’s injuries include a fracture of the left hand and an injury around her neck vertebrae that will require a plaster cast on the hand and a stiff neck collar. The Royal Court anticipates that Queen Margrethe will wear these for the next few months.

King Frederik previously commented on his mother’s health, telling reporters at an event to mark the centenary of the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir that “we take it day by day.”

Queen Margrethe’s health has been at the forefront of conversations about the monarch for some time. She has had noted back problems for years, and in 2023, underwent extensive back surgery that sidelined her for several months, requiring her son and heir, Frederik, and the rest of the family, to step in to carry out her duties.

At the end of 2023, in her last New Year’s address, she made a shock announcement that she would abdicate her throne after 52 years in favour of Frederik.

She said that the operation had given her time to think, “Inevitably, the operation gave cause to thoughts about the future – whether now would be an appropriate time to pass on the responsibility to the next generation.”

But despite abdicating—and her being the last queen regnant of Europe, and perhaps decades before another one helms a throne—Queen Margrethe continued to carry out engagements and has, at times, stepped in as regent while King Frederik is out of the country.