The timing of her solo mum travel comes after a rough month for Mary, in which her husband hit the headlines for an alleged – and firmly denied – affair with Mexican socialite Genoveva Casanova.
“While Fred has sworn nothing happened and they’re just friends, having her family life under the microscope can’t have been easy on the usually private Mary,” notes one long-time Danish royal watcher.
Indeed, onlookers have found that at recent official events, Mary has not been her usual cheerful self.
Body language expert Judi James told the Mail Online she looked “hesitant and disengaged” and “didn’t make eye contact” with her husband during a joint engagement with King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain last month, just days after the affair allegations exploded in European media.
“In the past, Princess Mary and Prince Frederik have tended to be naturally tactile and playful,” Judi says.
Regardless of the stress of the past few months, royal insiders say Mary “rarely” misses an opportunity to come home.
“Whether it’s the chance to get away from it all at a trying time, or simply catching up with her brother, sisters and dad Down Under, trips to Australia are always healing from Mary,” says a source.
Soon after her fairytale Copenhagen wedding in 2004, Mary returned to Oz, and said, “It was a beautiful feeling to see Tasmania below me.”
At the time of press, it was not known whether Mary was in Sydney – where her nephew, Count Nikolai is based – or back in Tassie where her sister Jane Stephens lives.