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She turned 40. The apartment was full of guests. Friends, family, colleagues from the theatre. Suddenly the doorbell rang. And then he stood there. With generous smiles and a bottle of champagne under the arm.
“Yes, I could feel that he was on,” says Mie Vessel Schlüter and laughs at the memory. About the time Denmark’s prime minister cured her.
The two managed to get 32 years together before Poul Schlüter passed away last year in May. And there are many memories. Not least about their first meeting. Or meetings.
If she rewinds, she remembers that shortly before she had become single and a single mother.
Anne Marie Vessel and Alexander Kølpin had just separated when Poul Schlüter treated her. Here the couple can be seen with their son Niclas.
Photo: Karl Nord
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The relationship with the 16-year-younger Alexander Kølpin – with whom she has a son Niclas – had just ended when, in autumn 1988, she first met Mr Schlüter – as she jokingly calls him – at her friend Susanne Heering’s birthday.
In her own words, she looked pretty good that day. Which was possibly the reason why Poul Schlüter came over to praise her for the speech she had given.
“But the first thing I noticed was that he was so small but had a big head. It surprised me, because I had only seen him on TV,’ recalls Mie Vessel Schlüter.
During dinner later that evening, he brought another of her friends to the table, and took the opportunity to tease her about who Mie was.
“He was already there,” she smiles.
As fate would have it, half a year later they met at an event at the Royal Theatre. Where the same friend bluntly invited Denmark’s prime minister to Mie’s birthday.
‘I’d like that,’ he said. Totally happy. And therefore trooped up to the party. With a bottle of champagne.
73-year-old Mie Vessel Schlüter has many good memories from her 32 years with Poul Schlüter.
Photo: Bax Lindhardt
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“And the next morning, when it was my real birthday, he came again for breakfast. There he had put on his ‘sports clothes’. He always did that when he had to make an impression,’ she laughs and then adds:
“I could tell that he was somewhat eager.”
She herself was hardly as eager.
“I could see that he was an exciting man, was enormously charming, had many of the same interests, was super musical and went to the theater a lot when he had time.”
“He said he couldn’t live without a woman in his life. So of course he was looking for having lost Lisbeth,” says Mie Vessel Schlüter with reference to Poul Schlüter’s second wife, who died of cancer in February 1988.
“But I was fine. I was a single mother, had plenty to do at the theater and wasn’t looking for anything,’ explains Mie Vessel Schlüter.
Still, Poul Schlüter managed to knock the legs out of the 20-year-younger ballet dancer.
“And from there it went fast!”
Quite a short time after they had become lovers, Prime Minister Poul Schlüter and Anne Marie Vessel had to stand up to the press, who had chased the couple exorbitantly.
Photo: Keld Navntoft
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On July 21, 1989, Anne Marie Vessel became Mrs. Schlüter. Denmark’s first lady. In all secrecy.
“I said straight out: ‘if you want to marry me, I’ll decide’. The journalists were absolutely exorbitant back then. It was rough. Therefore, I would only marry if it was secret. The two of us and nothing else. That’s how it was,’ she says with determination in her voice.
In a short time, her memoirs will be on the bookshelves. It’s called ‘On sloping boards and bony floors’. And while working on it, she was reminded of what an amazing time they managed to have together.
Not least the first four years when Poul Schlüter was prime minister. And she first lady.
“It was four fun years. Because I had to sit at official events and talk to someone I didn’t know and without having a solid understanding of politics,’ she says and bursts into loud laughter.
“But those were also hard years, because I also had my job at the theater as ballet school director.”
“I don’t really understand how I managed to be a mother to Niclas and the Prime Minister’s wife to Poul at the same time,” she says and shakes her head.
“But Poul knew very well that he should not remove me from that theatre. Because I’ve been there since I was four. For almost 69 years.’
Dance and ballet have been part of Anne Marie Vessel Schlüter’s life since she was little. Here she is seen as a four-year-old at a prom.
Photo: Willy Lund / Nordisk Pressefoto
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They had 32 years together. Many more than most had expected.
But not Mie and Poul. They knew it was for life.
“I had a son, had been married before, knew Alexander and had – and still have – a lovely friendship with him. Poul had also been married once before to Lisbeth, with whom he experienced great sadness when she died. Because she meant a lot to him.’
“Maybe I didn’t mean as much in that way. But as Per Stig Møller said: ‘Mie got the good mood and joie de vivre back in Poul’.’
“And I know I did. Because suddenly he could sing again,’ she smiles at the memory of 32 exciting and lovely years with her great love.