The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton, are planning a major move.
The royal couple plans to move from Kensington Palace in London to a new home 30 miles west in Berkshire, the county where the Queen’s primary residence, Windsor Castle, is located.
The move, first reported by the Sunday Times, reflects the changing needs of the couple’s three children: Prince George, who will turn nine in July, Princess Charlotte, seven, and Prince Louis, four.
According to PEOPLE, George and Charlotte will leave their London prep school, Thomas’s Battersea, at the end of the current term and enroll in a Windsor-area school. The family is expected to move into Adelaide Cottage on the Windsor estate, but this has yet to be confirmed. The palace remained silent.
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Although the primary motivation for the change was the children’s education, there are other advantages: Bucklebury, where Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, raised Kate and her two siblings and where they still live, is located in Berkshire.
Along with the short 40-minute car ride between Windsor and Bucklebury, William, who turns 40 on June 21, and Kate, 40, will be only minutes away from William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, who is 96 years old. According to the Sunday Times, William and Kate may eventually move into “the big house,” a.k.a. Windsor Castle. Prince Charles, William’s father, is thought to have no plans to spend as much time there as the Queen does now.
“In reality,” a friend told the newspaper, “they are quite limited in what they can do in London.” “The kids are unable to play football with their friends in the park. They intend to stay there for the next 10 to 15 years before moving to Anmer, which is very important to them.”
Anmer Hall, the couple’s country retreat in Norfolk, is “their happy place,” according to a friend of William’s. They will continue to base themselves in Kensington Palace in London.
On Monday, William and Kate attended the annual Order of the Garter ceremony at Windsor Castle, where Kate made her royal debut in 2008 while they were dating.
