The 24 hours since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announced/confirmed their move to Adelaide Cottage has been fascinating. The royal commentary class has been following the 14-month ordeal of the Cambridges’ careful groundwork-laying for the move, and yet when the confirmation came on Monday, it felt like those same commentators have taken the opportunity to (gulp) criticize the Cambridges openly. One of those commentators? Richard Kay at the Daily Mail. Kay is definitely aligned with Prince William on most things, and Kay is one William’s favorite commentators to get “the Peggington side” out. So it’s definitely odd to see Kay call the move “clumsily insensitive.” Some highlights for Kay’s new piece in the Mail:
Insensitive: The less charitable response [to the move], however, is that at a time of an exploding cost-of-living crisis affecting working families up and down the country, securing the use of an additional property looks clumsily insensitive.
A rare misstep: Certainly for a couple who have always demonstrated a deft hand in managing the public relations side of their royal life, the fact that they now have three enviable addresses at their disposal is a rare mis-step.
Hollow words: It is, after all, not that long since their grand Kensington Palace home was extensively renovated with £4.5million of taxpayers’ money. In the face of criticism at the time their spokesman was moved to defend the cost to the public purse by describing Apartment 1a – the former home of Princess Margaret – as their ‘one and only official residence’ and where they would live for ‘many years to come’. Less than a decade later, those words are beginning to sound just a little hollow. Now Adelaide Cottage joins Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall – their country retreat in Norfolk – as part of an impressive portfolio of properties.
Tam-Na-Ghar might be rented out: There remains uncertainty over the precise ownership of a fourth property, Tam-Na-Ghar, a cottage on the Balmoral estate which the Queen gave William when he was a student at St Andrews University. For some years he and Kate stayed there often but it is thought it is no longer a royal address and is now let commercially.
Do the Cambridges really need Adelaide Cottage? So do William and Kate really need this third property? And if so could they not have put one of the remaining houses in mothballs or even – daringly – announced that they would stop using one of them altogether?
No extra cost?? Naturally, it is only fair to point out that Prince William and Kate are meeting the cost of renting Adelaide Cottage themselves and that, because of its location within Windsor Home Park, it needs, we are told, no extra taxpayer-funded security nor a costly refurbishment…Meanwhile, the Cambridges are retaining all their other homes and their office staff will continue to be based at Kensington Palace.
What about the slimmed-down monarchy? ‘As always it’s the optics,’ says a seasoned courtier. ‘On the one hand we are preaching a smaller institution based on core members of the family. But if those core members are seen to have multiple homes it invalidates the entire approach.’
“It needs, we are told, no extra taxpayer-funded security nor a costly refurbishment…Meanwhile, the Cambridges are retaining all their other homes and their office staff will continue to be based at Kensington Palace.” This is where it gets so tricky because of course there are extra costs and an extra burden on the taxpayer. The Cambridges are maintaining three homes (maybe four), all with security, all with household staff. The microcosm of this issue is the thing with Maria Borrallo – the Cambridges want the story to be “we won’t have a live-in nanny anymore,” but Nanny Maria is still on full-time staff and now she’ll get some kind of house or apartment in Windsor, just so she won’t “live in.” The Cambridges will also have new staffers, maids and a chef and groundskeepers. The “hidden” cost is being grossly misrepresented. Anyway… it’s amazing to see the Cambridges get criticized for this “move.” I suspect William desperately wants to scream “I’m not moving, you guys, don’t worry, I’m still going to use Kensington Palace all the time.”
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- BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND – AUGUST 02: Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to SportsAid House at the 2022 Commonwealth Games on August 02, 2022 in Birmingham, England. The Duchess became the Patron of SportsAid in 2013, Team England Futures programme is a partnership between SportsAid, Sport England and Commonwealth Games England which will see around 1,000 talented young athletes and aspiring support staff given the opportunity to attend the Games and take a first-hand look behind-the-scenes.,Image: 711503774, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Chris Jackson / Avalon
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Please, Kay is being obsequious as usual. This is treacle and kid gloves whereas Wootton is fully pouring on the sugar on behalf of Prince Pegasus!
@Scorpion, seriously. “Rare” my ass. The Cambridges do nothing but constantly trip over their own dicks in every single thing they set out to do.
The Gold-plated Standards continue apace!
Missteps are not rare for Kate and will imo like the time they commandeered the royal train to take them on a tour of the UK during the pandemic
Yep. The “Rare Mis-step” is a regular dance for these two at the moment.
Yep, and the crappy Caribbean visit. Let’s not forget that.
That’s what I was thinking too, from the (multiple) bum-flashes on duty to the more recent Caribbean flop, how on earth can they say yet again that missteps are “rare” for this couple of morons? #StillCoddling.
I suspect this — all things considered — rather mild criticism comes from two things: 1) the current headlines about the cost of living crisis in the UK, which is dominating news cycles and 2) the RR not liking being lied to. All of the RRs mention how they were told that KP 1A would be the Cambridges’ main base of operations, “forever home” etc to justify the taxpayer-paid renovations and the RR doesn’t like appearing to have egg all over their faces from the Cambridge bait-and-switch.
I guess William and Kate never had that big 40th birthday blowout, huh? Too much going on? LOL
I suspect they, or he at least, did and its been covered up by the media.
Maybe Boris Johnson hosted {ducks}
Oh, I would bet that there was a party, but that the media is not covering it…for now. These two never miss a chance to celebrate themselves.
I’m sure William has a party but he didn’t invite kate.
A rare misstep? All they do is misstep! England literally has raw sewage pouring into lakes and rivers and the king of earthshit (literally) is nowhere to be found! Misstep! The colonial cosplay tour…misstep! The choo-choo Covid tour? Misstep. Why is anyone surprised they couldn’t read the room for getting a fourth home. All these two do is misstep.
Don’t forget the Jason Knauf misstep. Don’t forget the scowls at Commonwealth service misstep. The bullshit homeless support misstep. Photographing yourself with a blond misstep. Having private dinners with your neighbour’s wife misstep. Don’t forget trying to mean girl Rose misstep. Don’t forget your mum wearing your same clothes misstep. I mean, we can’t count their missteps since 2017. These two are doing a new dance called the Misstep.
And it’s a line dance, so they absolutely, positively do not have to touch each other while dancing.
Though i was shocked to see the headline on the Daily Fail ,i cant help but be suspicious especially coming from Kay.
You are right. It was a set-up that backfired. Kay goes on to say how many houses Prince Charles who Kay hates owns. They even brought in a house owned by the National Trust, Castle of Mey, where Charles spends a few days each year in memory
of the QM and to support the local community. Kay is like a pig with his face in the trough.
Well, well, well. Watching from the cheap seats this is interesting. I mean on the one hand this is all starkly obvious but we know that the rota have a very limited relationship with the truth when it comes to the BRF. They write their version of reality as agreed with the royals and that’s that. Criticism (no matter how weak) does not feature.
Which leads me to a tinfoil tiara theory, is this groundwork to announcing their split? I’m not quite sure how the red strings would connect it all up but something along the lines of out of respect to Liz we didn’t announce this sooner and were super conscious of how bad this looked folks but we had to do it for the kiddies who are really suffering right now.
They won’t announce anything before Liz kicks the bucket…
I wouldn’t envy anyone whose position is contingent upon the longevity of a 95 year old woman.
Talking of kids suffering, I’m wondering how having multiple houses actually DOES affect children? Do you have 4 sets of toys? 4 sets of clothes? 4 sets of friends? 4 sets of pets? Do these children ever feel safe and settled?
Everyone concentrates on the adults in this situation…..but the children??
Emme- there’s a lot of truth to your comment. My parents divorced when I was 5 and I was navigating airports by myself from a very young age. The result is I’ve never really formed an attachment to any one home. I think I lived in 17 different places (between both parents who moved a lot) before I went to college. My home now I’ve lived in for 15 years, but I can’t say I would be that upset if I moved tomorrow to a new one.
“For the children’s sake, we wanted to keep the news of our separation quiet. But given the understandable public outcry over the new home during a sensitive time, we feel compelled to let the public know the truth.”
It’s the only way out of this mess. Just admit that you’ve separated and you’d appreciate privacy during this difficult time. Done!
Except they already have use/ownership of two houses. A third house hardly serves as an excuse unless they gave Anmer up and replaced it with Adelaide for Kate.
Lol “rare”
Right?!? Is there another definition of rare that I am not aware of?
It’s interesting that, after 14 months of preparation by the royal stooges, this announcement seems to have caught the public by surprise. Could it be that the general public doesn’t pay all that much attention to the tabloids?
They are keeping a 40 room mansion (KP) as their offices? First, move the offices into Buckingham Palace and give up KP. Second, how often do they plan to personally go to these offices? Helicoptering back and forth daily? Or do they plan to go once or twice a month and loaf off the rest of the time.
But their offices aren’t located IN their private apartment! As if William (or Kate) would ever allow that!
It’s interesting however that the reporting is stating that KP must be kept because it hosts their offices. As you say, there is no reason not to move their office staff to Buckingham Palace and get rid of KP 1A which is their private residence only, unless it will actually be William’s home while Kate is living at AC.
“But if those core members are seen to have multiple homes it invalidates the entire approach.’”
That’s what so many of us have been saying here for a while now. The slimmed down monarchy approach only works if the spending is also slimmed down. Kate and William having yet another home is not “slimming down” anything – at the very least they are going to have another set of staff there (even if some staff travels with them between the houses, I bet the housekeeper etc stays at each house), and their travel costs are going to increase! Now every time Kate “works” she will “have” to take the helicopter from Windsor to London.
(or they’ll say its too hard for her to get to London from Windsor before school lets out so oh well, sorry, she can’t work.)
If they were looking at Adelaide for the reasons claimed in these articles, they could definitely give up another of their residences – I don’t know who would move into Apt 1A but I guess they could always rent it out to a private citizen who would actually pay rent, right? the other royals who are based outside of London all have apartments in St James or BP, Will and Kate could certainly do the same considering the small amount of work they do. Or they could give up Anmer since they now have another home in a more “country” area(although not as rural as Norfolk I guess.)
Anyway we’re back to the idea that the only way this move makes sense if its a separation home.
They are all skating around the obvious, that this new home is a separation home. Otherwise they would have given up Amner, since they don’t need two homes in the country. William doesn’t want to change his lifestyle though. He wants KP and he wants his country bolt hole because AC is not a home for him. And all the RRs know this.
Also makes you wonder how often kate will do any early years work with the office allegedly at KP.
That was my favorite line, yes multiple homes do invalidate the slimmed down monarchy approach. What a farce.
Each house has their own set of staff who remain at the house full-time, all paid by taxpayers. There will be a third housekeeper hired to oversee all the staff working at (and living close to) Adelaide Cottage. Wasn’t there talk last year of renovation work being done at Adelaide Cottage, back when it was being talked about for Eugenie? I feel like part of the delay in announcing was to hide all the work done on the property by having it done last year.
From a public path/road you can see right into Adelaide Cottage. No doubt W&K will start complaining about that within a year, after spending another 40,000 in taxpayer funds to plant more yew hedges or whatever. As for ‘working’ at KP? Didn’t the staff admit they would go a month or two without hearing from W&K at all? That’s partly why they freaked so badly when Meghan showed up. Meghan showed up to work Every Day and expected staff to show up and work every day too.
I agree that the delay in officially announcing the move was to hide the fact that Kate’s renovations were underway. I can see it sort of as a stalling tactic by her; she wants to house hunt in Berkshire, she’s told that AC is the only option and she’s like well if I have to then I want this and this and this changed, hoping that the separation wouldn’t happen because she knew the writing was on the wall. They complete the renovations and *then* announce they’re moving and won’t need any renovations done!
The only breakdown that makes any sense is that Kate gets AC, Will gets AH, and they keep Apt 1A to use as a base when either or both have to actually show up to work.
I guess what I’m confused about is the comment that they would be paying rent. To who? The Queen who owns the property? Isn’t that just moving family money from one member to another? That doesn’t sound like all that much of a sacrifice on their part. But maybe I’m wrong?
I think AC is owned by the Crown Estates, so they would pay rent to the CE.
Help me here,if you can, because I’m totally ignorant.. who defines the price of the rent for any property of the crown estates? I haven’t read anything about the amount they will pay as a rent.. could it be a ridiculous amount set between them?
Ah….Thanks for the explanation Becks!
Actually, Adelaide isn’t rented by CE. It is listed as a grace-and-favor place that the Queen controls. She decides who can stay there rent-free.
@equality – oh really? I didn’t know that, I just assumed it was part of the CE. So then…..are they really just paying rent to the queen? Or is the queen “paying” the rent?
@equaity – that’s interesting. I wonder if they’re paying any rent at all. And I wonder if any of the other options that appeared in the press – on the Windsor estate, even if properties were available, but also, a rumored purchase in Bucklebury – were ever really options, or just the Midds advocating via the media for more prestigious digs. Will wants to keep the KP apartment and Anmer for his purposes (and whatever the future holds), and TQ agreed to Adelaide because even though it’s an additional house, it’s not an additional housing cost (additional staff, etc. costs aside). “Meeting the cost of renting Adelaide Cottage privately” could mean anything.
Rent of AC isn’t the only cost. They are paying for rent for the servants too. Someone is paying heating and cooling for 3 or 4 (not sure about the one in Scotland) properties and from what I see in the news that will be enormous this winter. Security is paid for at all properties. Someone is paying for all the travel to their offices in KP and back.
“Meeting the cost of renting Adelaide Cottage themselves” could easily be one of those very carefully worded comments— given that the cost could be zero, or close to it, and the statement would still be “true”. Since, in the past, it was a grace and favor property, it’s likely that there would be no way to check rental rates or anything else.
I think, like the idea that they won’t have “live-in” staff, this deliberate obfuscation is supposed to suggest that these Royals are somehow “just like us” — when, if anything, it could be even more expensive to house staff separately, slightly off-site. I really feel for the nanny (nannies) when she/they get called upon in the wee hours of the morning to deal with some crisis that the parent(s) decides not to handle on their own.
@Blithe – This is what I’m wondering about too. If this is Kate’s separation house with no live in servants, she’s going to be alone with three kids for some portion of every 24 hour period. Is Kate prepared for that? What happens for midnight glasses of water or 5am kids wanting attention?
The children will have wash basins in their bedrooms, they can pour their own water. They might have a nanny sleep over, on night shifts, despite not living there, or having their own room, or keeping their stuff there.
Or Carole might be living with them.
I was taking the “Four bedrooms” at face value, assuming there isn’t an additional room for Carole or the nanny to sleep over, but there’s probably a nook or something that isn’t being counted. Still, I’ve always imagined Kate surrounded by people, her family, her staff, whomever. I really do have a hard time picturing her alone in a house with three small children.
If they have more than one nanny, couldn’t one nanny be at AC during the night and awake? They wouldn’t need another bedroom. I think this is a “cottage” with a lot of square footage and lots of room. I’m sure they can change a room or two into staff bedrooms if they wanted, too. I just don’t know that it would be necessary. The cook/housekeeper can certainly arrive early enough in the morning to get the children fed and off to school. Especially if they live at WP which is a 10 minute walk away.
Ironically, these articles have the effect of making people defend the Cambridges, at least in the comments, so I guess the RR’s know what they’re doing (Eyeroll).
Try placing a comment about the Cambridges splitting. It will be taken down. But it’s the only explanation. for this cottage and their separate trips all summer.
I am only wondering about one thing. If Baldy divorces Kate and she manages to find a second rich husband, how will it play with raising the kids? Will they allow that George spends significant amount of time with new stepdad? What if the stepdad is not “appropriate”? Will they take the kids from Kate and she only visits to prevent that? This one thing tells me they will keep this sham marriage until the kids are really grown and out of the house.
If Kate remarries, she loses everything: title, divorce settlement, security, housing, perks, the lot. I think she can’t even be known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge anymore (even if William doesn’t remarry). The only thing she will have left is “mother of the future King” and I’m not sure how much status that grants her in society other than nonofficial appearances for George, like weddings and so forth.
So unless she (and her mother) are 100% sure it’s worth it — meaning “I’ve found a billionaire” sure — I doubt Kate will be stepping out with a new man.
What did this woman get herself into? In those times she willingly went back to Victorian times. I would love to hear what she’s truly thinking about her life at this point. And if she blames Carole for pushing her into this luxurious nightmare.
@Anna
I think that the only things Kate would complain about to Carole is that she has to pretend to work, pretend to have a faithful husband and pretend to care about the plebs. Oh, and that she’ll never be seen as the Queen Bee of the Toffs. She obviously thought that she’d live a life of total leisure with endless vacations and not having to answer to anyone.
Reality really has slapped her in the face.
@Anna, I think she thought, at the very least, that she would get some amount of respect and clout within the aristocratic set, bc if there is one thing they do in fact respect, it’s title/status in their society.
The whole Middleton MO has been a desperate attempt to address their insecurities about their class status, imo. They are “””middle-class””” but they don’t want to be. They want to be able to lord it over the rest of the posh toff set, but they can’t. I really have no idea which aristocrat made a snide comment about Carole Middleton’s use of non-U words at some boring garden party, but they’ve left her with a hell of a chip on her shoulder, and she’s going to spend the rest of her life, and her daughter’s life, making sure that everyone else pays for it.
She does live a life of total leisure with constant vacations, and not having to answer to anyone. She’s been doing that since she met William. She’s been criticised for her lack of work by the media, scorned by the public, asked by the queen and palace courtiers to work more, but she’s never let that change anything. She’s carried on with her lifestyle regardless. She’s always got away with it. She’s never answered for it. People constantly make excuses for her.
Kate keeps the divorced version of the title but loses the HRH. The Queen’s letters patent from summer 1996 ensures that. If she remarries, title gone. No, she does not lose access to the kids or custody, but it would be joint legal custody with the kids in boarding school most of the year. Second Wife will be Princess of Wales soon enough. Kids will move to whatever title William has, and Kate will be the only one left with any association with ‘Cambridge’.
If stepdad is ‘inappropriate’, like the disgusting ‘shaman’ marrying in to the Norse royal family? Will it matter? Are they keeping their kids away from Uncle Hookers and Blow Gary now? Do they keep their kids away from Pip’s FIL? Papa Matthews was accused of repeatedly raping his underage niece but those charges mysteriously disappeared. Amazing how all the crimes *allegedly* committed by the Midds, or those associated with them, disappear in French courts.
Well, back in the day there was lots of tabloid fury that Dodi Fayed was going to be an “inappropriate” stepfather for a future king, and we know what happened to him and Diana…
Chaine, that’s exactly where my mind went as well…Dodi Fayed. The British media lost their ever loving minds at the mere thought that he would be step-dad to Diana’s kids.
Kate’s next husband will be an older white-English divorcee/widower. He’ll be extremely wealthy and aristo-adjacent. He’ll adore Kate because she’s younger, uncomplicated, and mother to the FFFK. There’s probably a few lining up already. There’s zero chance she’ll marry someone who upsets the RF.
Missing the point, Chaine. It isn’t about Diana’s choice to get in a car driven by a drunk and not wear a seatbelt. It is about W&K continuing to allow their kids around disgusting people like Uncle Gary and Papa Matthews.
I mean, knowing what we know about the differences in how Will was treated versus Harry, and the queen and Margaret, I’d expect the firm to be extremely involved in how George is raised even if she doesn’t remarry. This wouldn’t be anything close to a normal custody agreement.
They won’t get divorced, Kate would have to give up everything she sold her soul for. Or I should say the only way divorce will happen is if Willy Boy falls in love with someone else and wants to marry her. But he couldn’t even find someone to marry him the first time so I don’t see it happening. Sorry for all the sentences started with prepositions! 😂
I could be wrong, but the first time around, William was looking for an English aristo to marry him. He’s already produced the heir/spares, so his options are much broader now. He won’t need the Queen’s approval, he can marry someone much younger, and she doesn’t have to be an aristo or even British. William won’t have any trouble finding a second wife.
I wonder if this is laying the groundwork for blaming Kate, as in “a rare misstep that Kate insisted on”, to further justify or explain a separation.
“It needs.. nor a costly refurbishment”. Am I wrong to think that a minor refurbishment would , definitely, be on cards but not so expensive by their standards? And would it be paid privately by the couple as the rent? I wonder.
I agree, who are they kidding. The house next door to me has had four different owners since I’ve lived here. Each one did major renovations to the house. If AC was refurbished in 2015, some might consider it dated. So we’re to believe that they’re not having rooms painted, adding or removing wallpaper, adding or removing carpeting. Updating the kitchen cabinets, fixtures, bathrooms. I think the reason they’re so late in moving is because of the work being done inside the house.
Their mis-steps are a never-ending and pretty lively jig. Entertaining if it wasn’t all so pathetic…
“Certainly for a couple who have always demonstrated a deft hand in managing the public relations side of their royal life…”
Who is he talking about here? Does deft now mean amateurish and awkward? He is abslutely correct about the timing of this unnecessary move especially after renovations to their other home. To me they are using their children’s schooling as a smoke screen for other troubles.
Considering how the press has bashed Harry and Meghan for every decision they’ve made, this mild criticism is nothing. The press feels compelled to criticise the Cambridges but it’s not with the same venom and spit that they always have for the Sussexes.
Just a quick question: If they let go of a home and it is rented out, the money goes back to the British public, or does the rent money goes into the queen’s pocket?
I see the RF win-win every time, they are getting freeloader lives any way or the other. The good thing would be for some of this money to somehow go to support people who really needs it.
Rare! LOL They misstep all the time. Wake up, Mr. Kay. Wake up.
Hmm… I wonder if this mild criticism from the RR is intended as a warning shot of some kind?
Or maybe the BM thinks if they criticize they will force W&K to admit it’s because they are separated and that’s the real reason for the new house.
I bet they are missing the “good ole days” when the monarchy could do what they wanted, when they wanted 🤣
I’d change that to “the usual misstep” rather than a rare one.
FFS, is there actually a way for the Royals to be “sensitive” when acquiring a 4th home using public funds, regardless of the economic situation? The British Royals are the most useless and expensive welfare leeches, completely devoid of relevant knowledge, skills or ability to do anything that would benefit anyone but themselves. And clearly they’re so bloody stupid and incompetent that they suck at selling the false image as well, even with the entire British media at their beck and call. If they want publicly funded housing, have them line up behind all the underprivileged people who need to be housed.
“4th home using pubic funds” – everybody seems to forget about the Scottish home. Fail’s Kay excerpted here can’t be bothered to figure out whether Tam-Na-Ghar, gifted by Queen Mother to Willy, is still theirs, rented commercial to third party, or is even still “royal” despite being part of Balmoral Estate that is supposedly privately owned by QEII. Per the Independent quoting KP, Tam-Na-Ghar is owned by Crown Estate and leased to third party, but then they state “The remote Highland retreat is reportedly close to Birkhall and used by the Cambridge family as a holiday home if travelling to Balmoral in the summer.” How do they manage to lease the remote retreat, but keep it available for W-K as holiday home? This lack of precision regarding BRF funding, public vs private, would drive me batty if I was supporting them; fortunately I’m not. British folk seem either totally cool with royals or too complacent to change. Remains to be seen whether current prevailing attitude to royals will persist after QEII passing, or as older generation of monarchy supporting traditionalists are replaced by less reverent younger people.
kirk, I checked to see what I could find on Tam-Na-Ghar. Not much. Supposedly, there are no pictures of the inside or the outside. It was a game warden’s home and has 3 bedrooms. I also read that it is a Crown Estate property. Isn’t that interesting that suddenly no one can determine who owns it?
There are other cottages which are rented out. This one is not one of them. Just how did TQM have the ability to give this to W?
The other thing I read was that the queen gets (at this time) 25% of the CE money. It was raised because of the BP renovations. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought that the money TQ got for the family wasn’t from the CE. If anyone understands any of this and can comment to clarify, I would appreciate it.
@Saucy&Sassy, I’m not surprised that it’s difficult to find information on Tam-na-Ghar’s ownership. Even the latest reporting this week mentioning it has been vague. Since it’s on Balmoral property, I assume it’s privately owned, but it’s unlikely that the Queen Mother gave it to William to own in his name, because that would incur death taxes. Only monarch-to-monarch inheritance avoids taxes, which is why each heir gets the lot and the rest of the family are reduced to scraping and bowing for their share. The Queen probably simply allowed William and Kate to use it while they were still dating so they could invite a few friends and party away from stuffy Balmoral and all the Queen (and Philip’s!) rules.
Furthermore, there are published pics of Tam-na-Ghar from the outside and it’s nothing special, even smaller than the usual Royal Family “cottages” and isn’t permanently staffed, so I doubt William and Kate use it regularly now that they have a family. One bedroom for them, one bedroom for all 3 kids and 1 for the nanny? How would that even work? They stay at Balmoral, for certain.
RF running income and expenses are notoriously unclear and I’m no accountant, but I think it goes something like this. They have three pots of income each year to play with (on top of what they receive from their personal assets and investments. It does not include costs like security which are separate):
1. the Queen/RF gets her big chunk of Crown Estate money via the Sovereign Grant which is supposed to be for expenses due to her formal activities, including all personal and professional staff (the Royal Household) and including CE-owned property expenses. Keeping all those stolen jewels and everything she’s ever worn in her long, long reign in a temperature-controlled vault isn’t cheap! Is her chunk only 25% of the entire CE now, even with the top-up for Buckingham Palace and Clarence House repairs, or is it more? Unclear.
2. the Queen also gets Duchy of Lancaster funds for “personal” income (to support her family), in the amount of ?? pounds annually, to which she and anyone else doing official duties can deduct expenses like transportation, clothes, etc (read: taxpayers pay twice, because the Duchy of Lancaster is part of the CE not her personal property). I do not recall if the Queen voluntarily pays taxes on the Duchy of Lancaster income each year.
3. Then the PoW gets Duchy of Cornwall funds for “personal” income to support his official duties by himself and his family (which currently is Camilla, Will & Kate and the kids, but was also for Harry and then Harry & Meghan for the short time they were in the RF), in the amount of around 25 million pounds annually. Again, taxpayers pay twice, because not only is Duchy money from the CE, but he also charges expenses against his annual Duchy funding for professional and personal staff, upkeep of properties (like Highgrove, which is owned by the Duchy), clothes, transportation (all those helicopters! private planes!) etc. The PoW in recent years has paid a (self-determined) “income tax” on the rest after expenses are deducted.
It was so that William could stay during term time when he was at St. Andrews.
Balmoral is closed during those months. It’s only opened up and staffed during the summer, august and September when the queen is there. If the queen arrives early before it’s opened she stays at one of the lodges. CraigOwan lodge I think, where Diana and Charles moved into when Diana didn’t want to stay at the main house with the queen.
So it was never an option for them to stay at balmoral Oct to July and it still wouldn’t be.
The fact that these two can’t live their separate lives in the way they did before speaks to something larger, I think. Baldy could absolutely continue conduct his liaisons at the various apartments owned by his friends in London and at Anmer, while Kate stays in KP and keeps taking the kids to school and queues up to drink coffee with the other parents and whatnot. There are plenty of co-ed day schools in London that the kids could have gone to, that would have given the same sort of education as Marlborough College did.
Why are these arrangements no longer tenable? The only real argument I can kind of see is that she gets to be closer to her family, especially since it seems like Carole has been forced to step back from intruding on their completely non-existent marriage by William.
That’s actually another interesting detail about all of this that I think goes unremarked on…I think William forcing Carole to butt out and take a step back signals a turning point in Will and Kate’s marriage. She was probably the one doing a lot of work to keep that relationship afloat, until Baldy stepped in and told her to f-ck off. She was probably also the one trying to get them to patch things up again, after the Rose Hanbury stuff became public. The fact that she’s no longer able to just “waltz in” and stay with the Cambridges overnight, whenever she pleases, along with the move to Adelaide Cottage, means that the unofficial separation is as official as it can get, for now. And unless William himself wants to make up with Kate, it’s officially a marriage of convenience between the two of them from here on out.
Enjoy the titles, and the 4 bedroom cottage, Waity. 😉 I hope being a b-tch, and moreover a racist b-tch, was worth it.
I think he’s moved Kate out because he’s fallen out with Carole. He married Kate in the first place, mainly because he wanted the middletons to be his family and Carole to be a mother figure. I think he separated from Kate years ago, they stopped being a romantic couple, but he still wanted to live as a family with the middletons and for Carole to still be mothering him.
Once he fell out with Carole that’s when things changed. He wants Carole out of his house, Kate can’t function without Carole, and there’s not much reason for him to be living with Kate without Carole and Middleton family anyway. He’s moved Kate into her own house where Carole can interfere all she likes, without bothering William.
I think you both may be on to something: that the separation actually isn’t with Kate at all. It’s with Carole!
So, funniest thing I’ve seen all day:
Description of Baldemort on Twitter: “He used to look better than most of us, now he looks like a demonic egg with an agenda.” —@HighwaySqueak
The BM recognizes that this move is the Cambridge’s attempt to get away from them. The Cambridge’s don’t have the Sussexes to serve up as cover so they are seeking physical distance from the media.
Good luck to them! They made their bed and have to endure it now!