On 10 June 1967 he married Princess Margrethe, the heiress presumptive to the Danish throne, at the Naval Church of Copenhagen. At the time of the wedding his name was Danicised from Henrii to Henrik and he was created HRH Prince Henrik of Denmark. Before the wedding, the Prince converted to Protestantism, having been reared as a Catholic.

It was not easy for the French diplomat Henri Marie Jean André, Count de Laborde de Monpezat (born 11 June 1934) when on 3 September 1966 he had to hurry from London to Copenhagen to be introduced as the fiancé of the heir to the Danish throne. The news of the secret betrothal had leaked out and the Danes were unprepared for there being a man in the princess' life. 

The couple met in London, where he was a secretary at the French embassy. Later, the Queen was to confess that it was love at first sight, that the sky exploded. She was, of course, speaking for herself. A plain girl who admitted that he was the first man she ever dated, she has also openly stated that she never quite figured out what he saw in her.

From the beginning, Henrik was not popular with the Danes.  He was slow to learn Danish, and always spoke it with a thick French accent, often making mistakes with the language which frustrated the Danish people.

He also loved to hunt, which further aggravated many of the peace-loving constituents.

When the princess became queen upon the death of her father, his role was relegated primarily to rearing their two young sons, Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim.

It was sometime during this period that he learned he was not a count as he had always believed.

Danish law never specified that royal spouses be of aristocratic origin. Nonetheless, no prince's marriage to a person who lacked male-line descent from royalty had been accepted as dynastic by the sovereign in the course of Denmark's history as a hereditary monarchy, prior to Crown Princess Margrethe's marriage in June 1967.  That too contributed to the Danes' distrust of him...he was a commoner. In addition, he often complained to the press about the pittance of an allowance the queen gave him, once stating it was hardly enough to buy tobacco.In a

Their marriage reached a crisis in 2002 when the prince retreated to their home in France, stating that he was profoundly unhappy.  Queen Margrethe flew to his side for a private visit. She emerged, declaring that everything was fine.  Nonetheless, he was not present a week later for the marriage of Willem Alexander, the crown prince of the Netherlands.

After three weeks, Prince Henrik did return to Denmark, but it was, for all intents and purposes, the beginning of the end.  Though the two still appear together for public functions, he was not with her for two major surgeries and recently referred to his son's twins as "ugly." 

He has also criticized his daughter-in-law, calling her "of low birth."  None of this has set well with the Danish people.  And when he appeared at a state function with his fly open, that was really just about more than they could accept. The Danes have also soundly criticized him for the large amount of weight he has gained in the last few years.

Finally,rumors have abounded for years that he is actually gay, though there is no definitive proof of that.