After Kate Middleton faced a cancer diagnosis last year and was able to come out on the other side, it sounds like she and her family are more than ready for a fresh start. Following the news that Kate, Prince William, and their children are planning a move to Forest Lodge, it sounds like the motivation behind finding a new home was the chance to start over after a uniquely difficult year.
According to what Vanity Fair‘s royal correspondent Katie Nicholl wrote for her column this week, Will and Kate are all about beginning a “new chapter” in their lives right now.
Sources close to the royals told Katie that Will and Kate “want to leave the difficult memories of the past three years behind and ‘start afresh'” in a new home, and after everything they’ve been through, who could blame them?
The size of their current home, Adelaide Cottage, also has a little something to do with it. With two adults and three growing children, their four bedroom house was beginning to feel a bit too small — there’s no chance of that happening at Forest Lodge, which is much larger.
They’re also planning for the future, and that means that they’re hoping their next home will be where they stay forever. Forest Lodge fits the bill in what they’re looking for, too, while also offering a lot more privacy than somewhere like Kensington Palace would. It would also allow William to have the “low-key” reign that he’s hoping for as he attempts to bring the monarchy into the future.
“It’s all in keeping with William not wanting to be a drain on the public purse and living as ordinary a life as he can, even when he is king,” one royal insider said.
Another source seems to agree with Katie’s intel, telling the Daily Mail, “It’s a fresh start for them after three really tough years. They are looking forward to creating many happy memories in their new home and leaving some of the unhappier ones behind.”
The location and low profile of Forest Lodge also means that Will and Kate can continue to be hands-on parents and be the ones who pick up and drop off their kids at school, since the Lambrook School is just a few miles away.
“The late Queen said she had to be seen to be believed,” a source told the outlet. “I just hope that the Prince of Wales can find the right balance between raising his family away from the public glare at Windsor with the presence required of him as a future, and eventual, head of state.”
