Prince William, Princess Kate, and their three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, have faced a whole lot of changes over the past couple of months.
The royal family recently relocated from Kensington Palace in London to Adelaide Cottage, a four-bedroom home located in Windsor’s Home Park, the private 5,000 acres of land surrounding Windsor Castle. Their kids also recently started classes at a brand new school nearby, Lambrook, on the same day Queen Elizabeth died. And while the prince and princess may make this balancing act look easy, a source close to the family told People that this has been a very stressful time for all of them, especially Princess Kate. “Things were very tense that week; it was not exactly the settling-in period they had hoped for,” the insider explained.
Katie Nicholl, author of The New Royals: Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy and the Future of the Crown and Vanity Fair contributor, added that following the monarch’s death, the couple’s focus has been on broadcasting an image of stability and unity, starting with their first official portrait as Prince and Princess of Wales. “That was a very important image of what the modern monarchy and reign of King Charles will look like,” Nicholl explained. “They represent the future House of Windsor.”
And while William and Kate have been slowly taking on additional royal duties ever since Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s departure as senior royals in early 2020, over the past couple of months those responsibilities have increased exponentially. But regardless, the couple are focused on making sure they provide their children with a sense of stability in their new home, as this move also marks the first time that the family is living separately from their nanny, Maria Turrion Borrallo. A friend told the outlet, “They love that the kids can go out on their bikes and cycle around the estate, and they are all really excited to meet everyone. It’s a real little community.”
Princess Kate wants to keep her children’s lives as normal as possible despite their royal pedigree, breaking from tradition by keeping her eldest, Prince George, at home rather than sending him off to boarding school. And given that Lambrook is just a 15-minute drive from their new home, William and Kate are able to do school pick-up and drop-off most days. It’s expected that one day the family will move into Windsor Castle, but, for now, their cottage mimics life at their other beloved country retreat, Anmer Hall in Norfolk. A close family friend called their new circumstances the life of a “modern royal family doing normal things.” And while they’re still adapting to their new home and new roles within the monarchy, Majesty magazine’s Joe Little says the late Queen Elizabeth “would expect them to carry on with a stiff upper lip and do so with grace.”
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