She was the central figure of a cause célèbre kidnapping when she was abducted by a nobleman from the theatre in 1765, which became a great scandal at the time.
She made her stage debut as Mélite in Den gifte Filosof at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen in 1761.
Christian Conrad Danneskiold-Laurvig was forced to release Rose and was sentenced to fines and exile in Norway (where he was later involved in the elopement of Ingeborg Akeleye).
However, there are indications that Mette Marie Rose and her mother had been aware of the kidnap beforehand and consented to it.
Rose lost her position at the theater, was given a pension and a dowry and sent to a vicarage in the countryside to be educated in moral discipline.