Danish prince “fine” for Paris post after blood clot surgery

COPENHAGEN — Prince Joachim, the younger son of Queen Margrethe of Denmark who underwent an emergency surgery in France in July for a blood clot in his brain, said Friday he was “eager to get started” as he arrived for his first work day at the Danish Embassy in Paris.

“I am fine,” Joachim told Danish broadcaster DR outside the Danish mission in the French capital where he will be defence attaché.

Joachim who was tapped in June for the job, said it had been “a non-summer” after he was rushed to the Toulouse University Hospital on July 24. The 51-year-old prince was to have started as defence attaché on Sept. 1 but it was postponed because of his condition.

Joachim and his French-born wife, Princess Marie, were residing at his mother’s private summer residence of Chateau de Cayx in southwestern France when he got the blood clot. Doctors assessed that the risk of recurrence was “very small.”

Joachim is sixth in line to Denmark’s throne after his elder brother, Crown Prince Frederik, and his brother’s four children.

The Associated Press