Why Princess Catherine and Prince William’s Move to Windsor Honors Queen Elizabeth

Kate Middleton and Prince William’s Decision to Move to Windsor Had a Poignant Tie to Queen Elizabeth
The couple and their three children relocated from Kensington Palace in London to the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage in 2022

Queen Elizabeth, Prince William and Kate Middleton at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in London on May 20, 2019. Photo: Geoff Pugh/POOL/AFP/Getty 

Kate Middleton and Prince William opted to move from Kensington Palace to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor two years ago for a heartfelt reason.

In 2022, the couple — then styled as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge — relocated from London to Windsor and the four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage with their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. One reason the couple opted to move their family? It is nearby Lambrook School, where all three kids began that September (and remain pupils at still today). In his new biography Catherine, Princess of Wales (out now), Robert Jobson expands on Kate and William’s decision to move — and how it sweetly involves Queen Elizabeth.

Queen Elizabeth, Prince George, Prince William, Princess Charlotte, Kate Middleton and Prince Louis on the Buckingham Palace balcony following the Platinum Pageant on June 5, 2022.Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty 

Jobson writes that William, 42, wanted to move so he could be closer to his grandmother after the April 2021 death of her husband, Prince Philip, and Kate, also 42, was very much in favor of the idea.

Quoting in aide, Jobson writes that William “knew his time with his grandmother was precious and he is delighted they, as a couple, made that decision.”

He adds, “Catherine understood that for William, as a future king, it was important for him to be geographically closer to the late Queen in her final months, when he was required to support both her and his father. It made a real difference. They were in regular contact, seeing each other in person and speaking on the phone several times a week, bringing them even closer.”

Queen Elizabeth and Prince William during the Ceremony of The Keys at Holyrood Palace on June 28, 2021 in Edinburgh, Scotland.Chris Jackson/Getty 

After the late Queen’s husband of over 73 years, the Duke of Edinburgh, died in 2021, she struggled with the loss — but was buoyed by regular phone calls and visits from William, now geographically closer than he had been when his family of five was living at Kensington Palace in London. Adelaide Cottage is only about a 30-minute walk or a 10-minute drive from where the late Queen was living at Windsor Castle before her death on Sept. 8, 2022, at 96 years old. At the time of her death, the Queen was staying at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the royal family traditionally retreats to as summer ends.

After her death, William and Kate were newly styled as the Prince and Princess of Wales. The move to Adelaide Cottage also put the Wales family in closer proximity to Kate’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, a 45-minute drive away in Bucklebury.

Adelaide Cottage underwent major renovations in 2015 — especially convenient for the family of five, because it didn’t require any further work or security arrangements to be move-in ready, according to the outlet.

Prince George, Kate Middleton, Prince Louis, Prince William and Princess Charlotte at Lambrook School in September 2022.Getty Images 

It was originally built in 1831 for William IV’s wife Queen Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen (hence the name of the cottage) and has also been used by Queen Victoria (who considered it a favorite home) and Group Captain Peter Townsend, the ex-beau of the late Princess Margaret.

It boasts seven gated entrances, and no members of the Wales’ staff live on the property, meaning the home’s four bedrooms are sufficient for the family’s needs. When the family moved to Windsor two years ago, their nanny Maria Borrallo, who has been under William and Kate’s employ since Prince George, now 11, was just eight months old, was kept on as the children’s caretaker, “but she is expected to live at another property — as will other staff, such as a housekeeper,” PEOPLE reported at the time. “It will be a major change for the children, who have had Borrallo living alongside them for eight years.”

Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo talks to Queen Elizabeth as they leave the Church of St. Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate for the Christening of Princess Charlotte on July 5, 2015.

Chris Jackson/Getty

A family friend told PEOPLE at the time that “The move is mostly down to schooling,” and in Windsor, the family relishes the open parkland and countryside where George, Charlotte, 9, and Louis, 6, can freely play.

“They love that the kids can go out on their bikes and cycle around the estate,” a friend told PEOPLE, adding “It’s a real little community.”

It’s all what Queen Elizabeth would have wished, Majesty magazine’s Joe Little said. “She would expect them to carry on with a stiff upper lip and do so with grace,” he said.