Swedish Monarch Comes Clean Over Speeding, Offers Apology

Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf apologized Monday for having exceeded the speed limit while driving in Denmark over the weekend.

The king admitted that he had been driving too fast on his way to pick up his children at the Copenhagen airport Saturday for the celebration of Danish Queen Margrethe’s 60th birthday, which was Sunday.

Shortly after noon Saturday, a driver called the police and said he had been overtaken by two Swedish-registered Ferraris driving at a high rate of speed on the expressway around Copenhagen, the Swedish news agency TT reported.

The king said he was driving somewhere between 81 mph and 87 mph in a 68 mph zone but denied he was going any faster.

TT reported that the king was driving at 87 mph.

“I’m sorry, and I apologize,” the king said via his press secretary, Elisabeth Tarras-Wahlberg. “We were late and had a few errands to run before we were to collect the youngsters at the airport.”

Asked if the king will be fined for speeding, Tarras-Wahlberg said, “This is a hypothetical question because he was not caught in any speed trap.”

Copenhagen Police Inspector Flemming Munch said, “Anyway, we could not do anything about it because the man is extraterritorial. And it would in any case be extremely difficult to prove it.”