Princess Mary tells: The shocking secret of how I really met Fred

Released to celebrate the royal heir's upcoming 50th birthday, Under The Bar unveils every swoon-worthy detail of their early days of dating - and how Fred knew his Aussie love was 'The One' after the first night they met. 

'To me there was something inexplicably attractive about her,' Fred tells. 'First her very calm manner, the way she moved, her dark voice, which was very fascinating.' 

In the book, Mary also tells the remarkable story of how a fortune teller at Sydney's Paddington Markets predicted that she would meet a foreign man and become a star - just two weeks before their fairytale encounter in 2000.

Revealing that the tarot reader was 'looking very determined and directly' at her as she strolled through the market, Tasmanian-born Mary says she was compelled to let the woman read her future. 

'It became an interesting hour!' Mary reveals in Under The Bar. 'The woman told me that I would leave the workplace where I had recently been employed and that I would soon meet a very worldly man. He was a foreigns man and I would become very famous, a star, she even said.' 

The woman went on to tel Mary that people 'will come to know who you are, they will see you and hear you,' telling the then 28-year-old that she would also move to Europe. 

The couple - who are now parents to four children - then go on to talk about their fateful first meeting. Revealing how Mary was supposed to go to a farewell party for an acquaintance, he friends instead persuaded her to go our with them. 

The group went to Sydney bar Slip Inn, where Fred and several European royals - in town for the Sydney Olympics - were partying. The book goes on to reveal that a smoking Fred sat next to Mary and tried to make her believe that he was a Danish Olympic athlete. 

'We talked so well!' Fred reveals in the book.

The jet-lagged prince then attempted to make his way home - but wound up on the dance floor with Mary, where they danced and talked all night. 

'I did not go home until three or four o'clock. Fredrik dropped me off at Porter Street in a taxi, and before it disappeared round the next corner, he asked for my phone number,' Mary reveals in the book. 'I gave it to him and got a goodnight kiss on the cheek.' 

For the full story see this weeks issue of New Idea - out now!