Nikolai was born a prince of Denmark at
Rigshospitalet in
Copenhagen on 28 August 1999. He is the oldest grandchild of
Queen Margrethe II and her late husband,
Prince Henrik. Nikolai was baptised in the chapel of the
Fredensborg Palace on 6 November 1999 by the Danish Chaplain-in-Ordinary, Christian Thodberg. At the christening, the musical work
Lys på din vej, composed by
Frederik Magle and dedicated to the prince, was performed for the first time. His godparents are his paternal uncle
King Frederik X, his maternal aunt Nicola Baird,
Prince Edward, Duke of Edinburgh, Peter Steenstrup and Camilla Flint. Nikolai and Felix have two half-siblings,
Henrik and
Athena, from their father's second marriage to
Marie Cavallier. Nikolai was
confirmed on 18 May 2013 in Fredensborg Palace Church in the presence of his immediate family and all his godparents. Like his father and uncle, Nikolai attended
Krebs School in Copenhagen. Upon leaving Herlufsholm School in August 2018, he started a two-year military program at the
Royal Danish Army's in
Varde. However, he dropped out two months later as he felt a career in the military did not suit him. In July 2019, he was admitted to
Copenhagen Business School to study Business Administration and Service Management. As part of that course, in 2023, Nikolai moved to
Australia to take a semester at
University of Technology Sydney. In early 2018, Nikolai signed as a fashion model with the agency Scoop Models. He made his runway debut in February 2018 at
Burberry's show at
London Fashion Week. He says he sees modeling as a job rather than a career. In February 2023, Nikolai signed as a model for
Elite Model World - Paris under the name of 'Nikolai'. Subsequently, in May he also signed with Barcelona-based modeling agency Sight Management Studio as 'Count Nikolai of Monpezat'. In June 2024, Nikolai graduated from
Copenhagen Business School with a Master of Science in Merchandising degree (cand.merc.). He also completed a semester of study in
Australia. In December 2025, it was announced that Nikolai would make his acting debut in the
film adaptation of
Hjalmar Söderberg's novel
Doktor Glas (1905). The film will premiere in April 2026. Later that month, it was also announced that beginning in 2026, he would take up a position as a
consultant in the property section of the
Confederation of Danish Industry (DI), with responsibilities including commercial and data-driven work. ==Titles, styles and honours==