Prince William and Kate are said to be planning a new start. The Prince and Princess of Wales are relocating from what’s been their home for the last few years, Adelaide Cottage, to a new location, Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park. And considering what a complicated year it’s been for Prince William and Kate Middleton, perhaps this will be the new beginning the couple needs. It’s just that the move it’s bringing some complications for others.
Two families living near the property were reportedly asked to vacate ahead of William and Kate’s move, Fox News Digital reported. “Close neighbors have been surprised to be ordered to leave their properties so that no prying eyes can see the Prince and Princess with their children,” royal expert Ian Pelham Turner told the outlet.
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Reportedly, it was all handled in a very cordial way, and there were no eviction notices. Instead, the tenants have since moved to similar or better housing, all within the 4,800-acre Great Park. That means everyone remains in Crown Estate properties. However, a “well-connected source” told the U.K.’s Daily Mail that the families “were not expecting it.”
“They were told to move out,” the insider told the outlet. “I guess they were given somewhere else, but they were told they had to move. They were not expecting it.”
“Those houses are very close to the Lodge, so they’re not going to want any Tom, Dick, or Harry living in those houses if there are going to be royals there.”
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams explained to Fox News Digital that it was all likely due to “security reasons,” and that the residents were still allowed to stay on “Crown Estate Land,” just not as close as they were. “They were reportedly in close proximity to the Lodge,” Fitzwilliams said. “The Prince and Princess of Wales need shelter from the enormous pressures of royal life with a media circus watching everything they do.”
These tenants that moved out lived in cottages that were converted from stables and rented out by the Crown state. Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their kids are not expected to move out until later this year, a Kensington Palace spokesperson previously confirmed to People magazine.
Extensive renovations have already started, with new shrubs being planted and a metal fence with black mesh privacy screens being placed around the front of the home. Prince William and Kate Middleton are said to be paying for the renovations themselves. “Some royal skeptics are saying that it is not grand enough for a future king,” said Turner. “William and Kate may already be setting the precedent for the future monarch living a much humbler existence.”
“Moving gives them an opportunity for a fresh start and a new chapter; an opportunity to leave some of the more unhappy memories behind. This is a move for the long term. They see it as their forever home,” a source told NBC News.
Prince William, Kate Middleton, and the couple’s three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, first moved to Adelaide Cottage three years ago. The move to a new house is said to be inspired by a desire to start anew, after what Prince William recently characterized as “brutal” and “the hardest year in my life,” following cancer diagnoses for both Kate Middleton and his father, King Charles.
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