At first, the Times of London’s coverage followed the party line: the Prince and Princess of Wales are moving into their latest “forever home,” an eight-bedroom mansion called Forest Lodge, on the Royal Windsor estate. Kensington Palace’s courtiers threw the “forever home” line out there and every royal reporter is dutifully putting it in quotes, and noting that Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall were also called “forever homes.” The Times noted: “The move to the eight-bedroom property is intended to be long-term, lasting even after William ascends to the throne.” The move to a larger home will also give William the time and space to think, apparently. From the Times: “Friends say he used the time to think and to plan how he will reshape the institution he will one day lead, especially how to make sure it remains relevant and ‘fit for purpose in the modern era’. William particularly wants to look at the structure of the royal household at Buckingham Palace, which is expected to remain the effective headquarters of the monarchy even though it is now assumed that William will never live there.” This is a feint – you’re supposed to be looking at and thinking about William “moving into a new mansion,” when really, he’s going to change his plans the second he becomes king. Which begs the question… is this solely Kate’s “forever home” and her upgraded separation home? The Times buried this story over the weekend, by Shane Watson: “Kate is downsizing — and living life on her own terms now.”
Call it a fresh start. Call it a Forever House (if you must). Whatever you want to call it, William and Kate are moving from Adelaide Cottage to the bigger Forest Lodge on the Windsor Great Park estate. We’re very interested in this development because (have to trust us on this) look closer and the move tells us an awful lot about the Prince and Princess of Wales, where they are in their lives, and where they are not.
What they’re doing here is smart downsizing — something only the rich can do but that also puts them right in step with the mood of the sustainability conscious middle-class population. They’ll still have their 20-room flat 1A at Kensington Palace, of course, and Anmer Hall in Norfolk, and Forest Lodge is an eight-bedroom house, so yes, it is a step up from their four-bedroom cottage but, still. Their new home as of “later this year” is like a gate lodge compared with the houses of many of their friends (the Duke of Westminster’s house has 60 rooms, for example).
Whatever way you look at it, it’s downsizing: they’ve chosen to make their permanent family residence — where they plan to stay even after William ascends to the throne — a relatively modest house rather than a royal palace.
I say Kate. Neither of them want the grandeur-behind-closed-doors associated with royalty any more but you suspect that the shift is driven by Kate…And Kate — while evidently the most obliging of royal wives — has entered a new phase of her life, post cancer treatment. Naturally she wants to live as normally as possible behind closed doors and in her case staying in the countryside, being able to walk in nature every day, is paramount. It’s pretty clear that, having done precisely what has been required of her for 15 years and with the confidence and clarity that, oddly enough, her serious illness will have given her, she’s no longer prepared to fake the role of Princess and this house move is part of a bigger shift towards “normality” away from the stuffy world her husband’s mother inhabited.
You remember back when Barack and Michelle Obama visited William and Kate and George in his dressing gown in Kensington Palace, the room where they entertained them looked like something in an Eighties diplomatic residence. Kate will have moved on from the tastes she thought she should have back then and developed her own and, on top of that, she’ll be 99 per cent less interested in other people’s opinions.
She’s 43 now and at that age where you start to see clearly the difference between duty and loyalty and pointless bollocks foisted on you in the name of good form, etiquette, and keeping other people happy. She will care less and care more about having a balanced life. Guaranteed she’s making the big decisions about their family life now and you know she’s said: “I want a house in the country, not a pile, no extras (please God no gym, no wine room, we don’t need a pool and we definitely don’t need any more bathrooms). I’ll source the furniture from the Windsor Estate royal furniture repository (she’s already been seen there picking a dining table). I’m not spending millions on principle, and the bigger the distance we can create between the kind of people who need sprung yoga room floors installed in their Windsor Great Park grace and favour house (talking about the Sussexes, of course), the better.”
The move is right for 2025. It’s the equivalent of swapping your monogrammed velvet slippers for Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 trainers (William’s favourite brand); your rolltop baths for eco showers; a fat yacht holiday off the SOF for a week on the Isle of Mull. It’s part of the same process that started with Kate letting it be known that she would no longer be releasing details of her outfits when out and about on appointments, the better to get the public to focus on the causes she supports, and Kensington Palace letting it be known that the Waleses have no live-in staff and want to be the kind of royals who are both seen on the school run. It’s the opposite of Bezos, the opposite of Montecito, the opposite of Andrew and it’s smart. She’s Kate, he’s William. If they don’t send George to Eton we’ll be looking at the full grandeur detox package.
I’ve already seen some comments that this is a soft-launch for what will become a larger story about William and Kate’s permanent separation. While this piece is definitely full of those kinds of clues, I think it’s more nuanced than that though – this is a longer process which will be updated when William becomes king. He’ll suddenly “understand” that he needs to be in London more often, or he’ll want to be in residence at Windsor Castle. And they’ll say, oh, but Kate is so comfortable in Forest Lodge, she’ll be the work-from-home queen consort, and that will be that. What I’m saying is that I don’t see this as an explicit announcement about the state of their marriage. I see this as part of the deal worked out last year – Will and Kate stay married, even if it’s only on paper, and the Middletons get to come back into society, and now Kate gets a house upgrade. Another part of the deal is clearly that Kate barely works anymore, which is seemingly okay with everyone in the family.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
