Danish princess gives birth to twins

DENMARK'S Crown Princess Mary has given birth to twins: a boy and a girl.

• Crown Prince Frederik indicates the size of his new son and daughter outside Copenhagen Hospital yesterday. Photograph: Getty Images

At a press conference yesterday, Crown Prince Frederik confirmed that his wife and the babies are in good health.

The Crown Princess is the daughter of Scottish mathematics professor John Dalgleish Donaldson.

Professor Donaldson emigrated to Australia with his wife in 1963 after graduating from Edinburgh University.

The princess's mother Henrietta Donaldson was executive assistant to the vice chancellor of the University of Tasmania.

Their daughter Mary met the Crown Prince in Sydney when he was attending the Olympics in 2000.

The twins will be fourth and fifth in the line of succession after their father and two older siblings.

The 38-year-old Australian-born Mary and the crown prince, 42, already have one son, Prince Christian Valdemar Henri John, and one daughter, Princess Isabella Henrietta Ingrid Margrethe.

Frederik is son and heir to the throne of Queen Margrethe II, who has reigned since 1972.

He married Mary, a commoner, in 2004.