“It’s perfectly understandable they would want a new place.”

In moving to their new home, the eight-bedroom, $21 million Georgian mansion Forest Lodge, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their three kids are leaving behind a difficult season that occurred during their three years living at their prior home, the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage.

The family of five moved into Adelaide Cottage in Windsor just before Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022; the three years that followed included the cancer diagnoses of both the Princess of Wales and King Charles, as well as continued strain with Prince Harry and scandal surrounding Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew). According to People, their move to Forest Lodge—which is being dubbed their “forever home”—is seen as a move that “represents a long-term reset” and “exudes a sense of renewal.”

“After such rough times, it’s perfectly understandable they would want a new place,” royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith told the outlet, who added that “Adelaide Cottage was a place of pain, suffering, and sadness.”

So excited were the Prince and Princess of Wales to move into Forest Lodge, just four miles away from Adelaide Cottage, that their move date was bumped up from Christmastime to early November. The move is widely seen to represent a “fresh start” for the family, and they intend to live at Forest Lodge even after William takes the throne, whenever that may be, eschewing living in Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, or a grander royal abode.

“They are signaling a different kind of lifestyle—it’s very centered on their children,” royal historian Amanda Foreman told People.

A source close to the Wales family previously told The Sun that “Windsor has become their home. However, over the last few years while they have lived at Adelaide Cottage, there have been some really difficult times. Moving gives them an opportunity for a fresh start and a new chapter; an opportunity to leave some of the more unhappy memories behind.”

Rebecca English of The Daily Mail reported that William refers to their experience at Adelaide Cottage as being “cursed,” and that their three years living there were mentally “scarring” for the family.

“Every part of Adelaide Cottage, sadly, had an unpleasant memory associated with it,” an insider told English. “It’s a lovely house and they started with such high hopes, but in the end they have experienced some of their most challenging times there as a family.”

Forest Lodge is 328 years old, twice the size of Adelaide Cottage, three stories tall, and boasts six bathrooms. It’s large enough to fit a 24-seat dining room table, which the Princess of Wales was seen picking out from a warehouse that specializes in antiques, “indicating that the future queen is hoping to host dinner parties at the property,” The Daily Mail reported.

Before moving in, the property underwent modest internal and external renovations, paid by William and Kate themselves, including new doors and windows, renovated ceilings, and new floors.

“It’s about as isolated as you can get there, so you can see the attraction for them,” a source said, per Tatler. “It’s situated in a huge private chunk of Windsor Great Park, and the children can go out cycling for miles and not come anywhere near any of the local residents.”

In addition to Forest Lodge, William and Kate’s real estate portfolio includes their London home, Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace, as well as their country home Anmer Hall, which the family retreats to often—including soon as they head to Sandringham for Christmas.

 

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Back in 2012, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s private holiday in the South of France turned dark after paparazzi secretly photographed Kate sunbathing topless while on vacation. In the aftermath of the photos being taken and later published, the future king was “ready to go to war with the press,” according to royal biographer Russell Myers.

William and Kate took legal action after the incident, and Myers—whose new book William and Catherine: The Monarchy’s New Era: The Inside Story is out on March 10 in the U.S.—told Fox News Digital, “Certainly, in his formative years, William was very clear that he didn’t want to go back to the really destructive period of his parents’ relationship, which had a huge effect on him and Harry. The breakdown of [Prince] Charles and [Princess] Diana’s marriage was played out in the media on an almost daily basis.”

“I think he felt that he not only needed to protect his own mental health and his own well-being, but also protect Catherine in that sense,” Myers continued, adding, “It’s very clear from what he said: ‘I will stop at nothing to protect my family, and you have to realize this.’ Even before he had children, William’s real sense of urgency to try to make the media understand his views on that was very apparent.”

For their 2012 vacation, the then-Duke and Duchess of Cambridge stayed at the Château d’Autet, a 19th century hunting lodge in the Luberon hills of Provence, Myers wrote. While sunbathing on the property, Kate didn’t know that, roughly a mile away, paparazzi were lurking in the shadows, photographing her with a long-range lens camera. After the photos were released and published in Closer, a French magazine, the couple’s “world came crashing down,” Myers wrote, with one former aide adding that it was “as if time stood still” for the two.

William was horrified by “the utter violation” and immediately called his father and his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth. He made it clear that he would sue Closer, taking legal action “all the way” over the “monstrous behavior.”

“Years before, William had gone against the grain when he warned the Fleet Street photographers that he would not tolerate a life of intrusion,” Myers wrote. “This time, he was ready to go to war with the press.”

Kate was devastated but remained calm, while William’s “anger was palpable” over the situation. As more magazines published the intrusive images, “Palace staff reacted furiously, suggesting the clock had been turned back 15 years to the dark days of Princess Diana being hounded to her death by the paparazzi,” Myers wrote. “Aides, describing the publication as ‘grotesque and totally unjustifiable,’ said the couple were ‘livid’ and felt ‘violated,’ and would pursue full criminal proceedings.”

“Sources close to the prince suggest he felt a deep sense of personal responsibility over the issue, questioning whether he had offered too much of his life to the press, and whether the event would have happened if he had previously taken a stronger stance with the media,” Myers wrote.

In 2017—five years after the incident—a judge ordered Closer to pay the couple over $117,000 in damages, far less than the $1.7 million William and Kate had sought. Two staffers were also fined a combined $106,000. Kensington Palace was “pleased” by the ruling.

At the beginning of their relationship, Kate “felt, ‘If I’m going to put myself forward for something like this, then I not only need the support of William, but also the support of the institution,’” Myers told Fox News Digital. “And as I tell in the book, William was absolutely integral to that, to say to her, ‘I will support you,’ and to have the mechanism of the palace supporting her, as well.”

In an October 2025 interview with Eugene Levy on Apple TV+’s The Reluctant Traveler, the Prince of Wales spoke about how he is drawing a hard line when it comes to his family and protecting them from media scrutiny.

“If you’re not careful, you can intrude so much into someone’s life that actually, you start unpicking everything,” William said. “And growing up, I saw that with my parents. The media were so insatiable back then—it’s hard to think of it now, but they were much more insatiable. They wanted every bit of detail they could absorb, and they were in everything, literally everywhere. They would know things, they’d be everywhere. And if you let that creep in, the damage it can do to your family life is something that I vowed would never happen to my family.”

“And so, I take a very strong line about where I think that line is, and those who overstep it, I’ll fight against,” he added.

 

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The 17-year feud between Kate Middleton and her husband William’s cousins, Princesses Eugenie and Beatrice

An alleged seating dispute at a fashion show is said to have marked the start of a 17-year rift between Princess of Wales Kate Middleton and Princesses of York Beatrice and Eugenie.

The rift dated to Feb. 2008, when Beatrice and Eugenie attended an Issa fashion show in London. Organizers reportedly asked them to give their front-row seats to Pippa Middleton, Kate’s sister but the two princesses declined.

One guest at the event told Daily Mail: “Pathetic, maybe, but however you look at it, people remember these things.”

Months later, Kate and Pippa hosted an 1980s disco-themed fundraiser in memory of their late friend Thomas Waley-Cohen. Beatrice was said not to be on the initial guest list. When she later received an invitation, the dress code was unclear so she arrived in a blue dress while many guests wore neon outfits. Former Tatler editor Catherine Ostler said: “Some say there were tears.”

Princess of Wales Kate Middleton and her husband, Prince William. Photo from Instagram/@princeandprincessofwales

William and Kate’s wedding in 2011 reportedly added to tensions after Sarah Ferguson, mother of Beatrice and Eugenie, was not invited. She had been embroiled in a “cash for access scandal” linked to former Prince Andrew following an undercover investigation by News of the World.

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey later that year, Ferguson said she felt excluded and left Britain on the wedding day.

“I wanted to be there with my girls and to be getting them dressed and to go as a family. And also it was so hard because the last bride up that aisle was me,” she said.

Speculation about the princesses’ strained ties resurfaced in 2016 after a photo from a Buckingham Palace garden party showed Beatrice and Eugenie standing behind Kate with expressions some described as unfriendly. A source said the three women had “never really warmed to each other.”

A source said that Kate was never close to the sisters and that her entry into the royal family was “very uncomfortable.” The source said they had been persuaded by their father that William was marrying beneath his status and that his relationship with Kate would not last.

Relations between the Middleton family and the York princesses have been described as unstable. Eugenie attended Pippa Middleton’s wedding in 2017 while Beatrice did not. In 2018, Pippa, then pregnant, attended Eugenie’s wedding to Jack Brooksbank.

Princesses of York Beatrice (L) and Eugenie. Photo from Instagram/@princesseugenie

Lifestyle differences were also cited as a contributing factor to the feud. Beatrice and Eugenie were described as active on the international social scene while William and Kate preferred a quieter life in Norfolk. “[Prince] William and Kate don’t appear to be close to either of the sisters. They haven’t got that much in common,” one insider said.

Tensions were said to have heightened after Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct during his time as a trade envoy, in allegations linked to Epstein. Thames Valley Police said he was detained on Feb. 19 during an early morning raid at Wood Farm, making him the first senior British royal arrested in modern history.

King Charles III said the police had his “full and wholehearted support and co-operation” and that “the law must take its course.”

William and Kate were reported to have backed the King during this time. They reportedly did not give presents to Beatrice and Eugenie during Christmas last year, according to Cosmopolitan.

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