While most of the focus on news about members of a royal family centers on the United Kingdom, the Royal Family of Denmark made headlines this week for a tragic reason.

According to MarieClaire, the Royal Family of Denmark made the bombshell announcement this week that Queen Mary is too sick "to undertake any engagements" at this time. 

The Royal Family's communications department confirmed to a Danish news outlet that the queen will not be in attendance for the upcoming Heart Association's award ceremony.

Queen Mary also released a statement regarding her upcoming absences.

What's going on?

"Her Majesty The Queen, like many others right now, has become ill, and therefore unfortunately cannot participate in the Heart Association's award ceremony," the Danish Royal Family's statement read.

Another news outlet noted that Queen Mary missed a recent engagement at the. National Knowledge Center for Early Intervention and Family Research at the University of Copenhagen and SDU.

The Danish queen released her own statement thanking her supporters for all of the well wishes.

"Thank you for your thoughtfulness. What a lovely surprise to receive this bouquet and drawings, even though illness prevented me from participating in the Danish Heart Association's event 'Together for the Heart,'" she wrote.

"I had been looking forward to presenting the Heart Award together with the heart children Alma and Ellen and to meeting some of the young people living with heart disease. Hopefully we can meet again."

Notably, it's unclear what illness the queen is battling or when she'll be able t return to her royal duties, as the Royal Family tends to keep such information especially private.

Recent headlines

While Queen Mary doesn't make world news all that often, she did last week after she debuted a special tiara that has been in the Danish Royal Family for some time.

The outlet noted:

The Queen of Denmark recently made headlines by giving Queen Caroline Amalie's 200-year-old tiara, which includes ancient stones, its public debut. Queen Mary chose to wear the incredible tiara at a dinner hosted by Finnish President Alexander Stubb at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki during a state visit to Finland in March 2025.

The tiara is nearly two centuries old, according to reports.

Many of the queen's supporters wished her well in her announcement.