The Prince and Princess of Wales must see an opening right now for a move to Fort Belvedere. They were eyeing the fort, which is part of the Royal Windsor estate, back in 2021 and 2022 too, but their public lobbying for the fort went nowhere back then. It went nowhere because QEII and then-Prince Charles clearly did not want William and Kate to have such a large home in Windsor, but it also went nowhere because the Weston family has had a long-time lease on the fort since the 1980s. Galen Weston passed away in 2021, and Galen’s widow Hilary Weston passed away just a few days ago. While I don’t know the details of the Westons’ lease agreement with the Crown Estate, I would imagine that the Galen heirs could simply inherit the lease on Fort Belvedere and continue to live there. Or… maybe not. Maybe William and Kate will be successful this time around. One thing’s for sure: the Wales family really does not want to live in Adelaide Cottage anymore. Interestingly, Tom Sykes wrote in his new Royalist Substack about how QEII never really wanted any member of the royal family to live in the fort after her uncle’s abdication.
A high-profile death means Prince William and Kate Middleton could be on the verge of leaving their cramped Adelaide Cottage quarters for one of the Windsor estate’s most spectacular and magnificent royal residences, Fort Belvedere. The move, long rumored, gained new urgency Monday following the announcement of the death of Hilary Weston, who in recent decades held the lease on the grand estate.
Weston and her late husband Galen (the Irish-Canadian retail billionaires owned huge brands worldwide, from Selfridges in London to Loblaw in North America) were such trusted friends of the Windsors that they were allowed to lease Fort Belvedere, just a stone’s throw from Windsor Castle. Galen was a polo partner of King Charles, and the royals stabled their polo ponies at Fort Belvedere. The Westons were arguably even closer to the Queen Mother, with whom they enjoyed regular dinners, lunches, and parties.
Queen Elizabeth, however, did not like going to Fort Belvedere for the very same reason that the property was ever available to lease to non-family members; it is the place where Edward VIII wooed and fell in love with Wallis Simpson. Indeed, it was at Fort Belvedere that Edward signed his abdication papers on December 10, 1936, in what was regarded as one of the most shameful and scandalous episodes in modern royal history.
For Edward, the Fort was also a wild party palace, famed for its well-stocked cellars, raucous gatherings, and decadent entertainments including skinny-dipping in the lake, all-night jazz sessions featuring American musicians (and, it was rumored, cocaine) and masquerade parties. It was in this permissive atmosphere that Wallis and Edward’s romance blossomed.
For the upright Queen Elizabeth II, therefore, the fort (it’s always “the fort” or “Fort Belvedere”) carried an awkward symbolism within the family, its history a very tangible reminder of the monarchy’s most public betrayal. After Edward’s exile, it was abandoned for two decades, then leased to a Lascelles cousin of the queen who struggled with the upkeep, until the Westons arrived in the 1980s with their massive fortune to restore it to its former splendor.
The Waleses have lived in the modest four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage since August 2022, but the house, only ever meant as a stopgap, is proving woefully inadequate for a future king and queen.
As I said, the more they go on and on about Adelaide’s inadequacies, the less I believe that William ever lived there. All of this is pretty much a confirmation that Adelaide was always Kate’s separation cottage, and William was based… elsewhere. Kensington Palace, definitely. I’ve theorized that William has a suite of rooms in Windsor Castle, and I’ve also wondered if he’s made use of Frogmore Cottage too. As for the fort… if this switch happens and the Waleses are eventually allowed to move there, I wonder if that was also part of “the deal” worked out last year. As for the symbolism, it’s actually amazing that William and Kate could end up in King Edward VIII’s party fort and the place where Edward signed his abdication papers.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace, Cover Images.
