Princess Kate could soon get the one thing she doesn't have
What the dickens do you buy for a woman whose family has a trove of Fabergé eggs, 550 plus Leonardo da Vinci sketches and a handwritten copy of Princess Maragaret's secret weapon sloe gin fizz recipe? A Jo Malone candle is not exactly going to cut it.
And yet, there is one thing that Kate does not have — a castle.
It now looks like the Princess of Wales could be getting one.
MORE: Prince Williams' dodgy $1.5b property empire revealed
Over the weekend the Daily Mail revealed that Kate and her husband Prince William are looking at upsizing from their comparatively weeny four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage to the vast Fort Belvedere.
Technically, it's not a castle, fine. But the Fort, as it's known, has about 40 rooms, eight bedrooms, boasts crenellated towers and turrets, and used to have canons from the 1745 Jacobite uprising positioned on its battlements.
But wait there's more; specifically 59 acres, stables, a pool, a tennis court, a rose garden, walled garden, kitchen garden, large greenhouse, two lakes, paddocks and three separate homes for staff.
Built nearly 300-years-ago, the Fort was where Edward VIII abdicated and is far more in line suitable digs for two future Kings, a future Queen and their growing collections of Latin textbooks, clarinet cases and ceremonial sashes than anywhere with the word 'cottage' in its title.
It would be a significant step up for the family on the royal real estate ladder.
MORE: Fresh twist in $57m Royal family feud
A well-connected source told the Mail that William and Kate 'feel they have outgrown Adelaide Cottage and need somewhere more substantial. This is the perfect new home for them.'
The Fort would be all but perfect given that 'William and Kate are said to put a high value on privacy and a rural setting'.
The Waleses moving to The Fort would make sense both for completely relatable reasons — teenagers need and want more space — but also uniquely royal ones.
For William and Kate the inexorable long march towards the throne continues. This sort of far grander home is in line with the fact that King Charles has been quietly handing the Prince and Princess of Wales more power and more responsibility.
William has been busy stretching his statesman legs, repositioning himself as someone rubbing shoulders and agendas with world leaders. Last year he was the first senior British representative to meet with a re-elected Donald Trump, represented the King at Pope Francis' funeral and in June delivered what his closest aides deemed a 'punchy', 'landmark speech', per The Times.
Meanwhile Charles has recognised Kate's work, rewarding her and singling her out by making her the first Princess of Wales since Mary of Teck in 1910 to be allowed to issue her own royal warrants. (Diana, Princess of Wales was never granted such a boon.)
The Princess will soon wield the billion-dollar power of being able to slap her official royal seal of approval on her favourite products and businesses, which could see her officially confirm everything from where she gets her hair done to who does her facials to where she buys her wine — all royal warrants that Queen Camilla has doled out.
There are other big family changes afoot for William and Kate. Prince George could be on the cusp of leaving home, sort of. (Anyone else suddenly feel a bit old?).
George, 12, has only one year left of primary school and in just over 12 months he will begin his secondary schooling with $129,000-a-year Eton, where William went, strongly favoured as the likeliest choice. (Kate's alma mater, Marlborough College is a strong runner up).
While the Prince and Princess have until now bucked tradition and not sent their son off to board at age eight years old, as both Charles and William were, at Eton there will be no choice.
It also remains to be seen what the coming year looks like for the Princess given it was only this month she admitted that she had struggled 'to function normally' after finishing her cancer treatment last year.
The 43-year-old's last minute withdrawal from Ascot in June — her essentially cancelling on the King and Queen at the last minute, decidedly not normally the done thing — was a reminder that we are still a way away from normal.
For now though, according to the Mail, the Prince and Princess are said to be 'considering their options' and 'no move is imminent'.
The biggest winner if they do move into the Fort — Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. Charles fought and lost an embarrassing battle to turf his exiled brother and his ex-wife out of his home Royal Lodge with a reported view to the Waleses being handed the keys.
For now though, William and Kate and future Annabel's 20236 members George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis have bigger things to worry about. The arrival of August means it's Balmoral season and the royal family's mass migration north to Scotland, bringing with it salmon burgers for everyone, bagsing being allowed to skip the Highland Games and arguing over whose turn it is to have a go of the barbecue tongs.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
6 hours ago
- ABC News
Coki
Loading You'll be able to hear him live at parties around the country including boutique festival Soft Centre but up first don't miss his exclusive triple j heads will already know but for anyone new listeners, Coki is an OG when it comes to the UK's dance scene. He's been at the forefront of the dubstep genre since the 2000s, is one half of the duo Digital Mystikz with Mala, and heads up the DMZ label and collective with Mala and two decades on he's still at the top of the game, just check out this recent track with Dfuse:It's an honour to have this legend throwing down on the airwaves tonight with a 60 min masterclass in all things dubstep and bass. Run this one up loud, and make sure you grab tickets to his shows before it's too late!
News.com.au
6 hours ago
- News.com.au
Shock news INXS received just before historic 1991 Wembley gig
Just before INXS walked onstage to play a career-defining gig at London's famous Wembley Stadium, the six musicians were given shocking news by manager Chris Murphy. The band's shrewd dealmaker had blown almost every cent of their 1.4 million pounds box office takings for the huge show in front of 74,000 fans on July 13, 1991; that's worth roughly $AU7 million in 2025. 'F**k! What am I in this business for? We're getting paid 1.4 million pounds for this gig tonight (and) I'm getting five grand. Five f**king grand. That'll pay my f**king champagne bill at the hotel,' frontman Michael Hutchence cheekily shared down the barrel of one of the many cameras shadowing the band backstage. Murphy spent the band's pay cheque on those cameras, having enlisted renowned British film-maker David Mallet to capture INXS at the pinnacle of their live powers. Mallet was one of the hottest music video and concert film directors of the era with credits including David Bowie's classic music videos Ashes to Ashes and Let's Dance, AC/DC's Thunderstruck and Queen's I Want To Break Free. All the sexy swagger and pulsating energy of that electrifying performance was preserved on the Live Baby Live concert film which has now been reimagined as INXS Live At Wembley, a behind-the-scenes look at the gig screening on Seven. Jon Farriss and Kirk Pengilly recall that this gig was a triumphant middle finger to the notorious British music media who had brutally dismissed INXS - as they did every Australian band of the era - until they exploded onto the UK charts with the X album in 1990, the wake of their 1987 global smash Kick. Five years before their mammoth Wembley gig, INXS had opened for Queen at the iconic venue and were pelted with bread and tomatoes. Who takes bread and tomatoes to a concert? So the success of INXS, off the back of the hit single Suicide Blonde, was entirely fan-led. 'That tall poppy thing, I think we were one of the first bands to experience it on that level,' Farriss said. 'We taught ourselves to stay quiet about it, we just wouldn't talk about it.' The critics may have hated them but the fans and their celebrity peers adored Hutchence, Jon, Andrew and Tim Farriss, Garry Gary Beers and Pengilly. The guest list for the Wembley gig was between 2,000 and 3,000 people depending on who you ask. Both Kylie Minogue and Helena Christensen, Hutchence's ex and next girlfriends, were backstage. So was Rolling Stones' then bassist Bill Wyman and members of Duran Duran. 'Yeah, I heard it was over 2,000, closer to 3,000 people,' Pengilly said. 'Apparently it was insane. I didn't know any of them. But, you know, it was London, (therefore), it was celebrities.' Jon added: 'I was like Andrew, I was just hiding in the dressing room.' One of the enduring myths about the Wembley gig is that Hutchence gave his friends - and a couple of band members - pills not of the prescription variety, with the instruction to take them on 'the fourth song' during the set which was The Stairs. 'It was the times,' Pengilly said diplomatically while confirming the myth but preferring not to name names. Mood enhancers aside, the gig is a tour de force for the band. Watching it now, as more than 70,000 people bounce up and down in unison to New Sensation, reminds you why it remains one of the most powerful live music moments ever captured on film. 'What was beautiful about it is that it wasn't us going, 'Come on, everybody'. It just sort of happened,' Jon said. 'The whole thing was trippy and it was extremely emotional. It's hard to understand what a strange psychological transition it is leading up to the moment you walk on stage to then being on stage.' INXS got their flowers recently when Never Tear Us Apart was he shock No.1 on the inaugural Triple J Hottest 100 Australian Songs of all time. 'Oh man, that was wow,' Farriss said. 'I was genuinely just speechless. 'It absolutely floored me and from that moment on when it was announced, I've never received so many texts and so many warm wishes and just beautiful messages from people I haven't spoken to or thought of for years and years and it's sort of brought us all back together. 'It's been amazing.'
ABC News
18 hours ago
- ABC News
20th Anniversary Collection: The comic genius of Jennifer Saunders
Jennifer Saunders says everything that's happened in her career has been the result of a happy accident, rather than any careful planning. When she and her great pal Dawn French were making their first series, French & Saunders, they were given complete freedom by the BBC, including the freedom to fail. Despite a few mishaps along the way and a battle with breast cancer, Jennifer now says that early freedom, risk-taking and random opportunities were the best things that could possibly have happened to them. Further information First broadcast in April, 2014. You can hear Sarah's full conversation with Timothy Spall on the ABC Listen App, or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also read all about the Conversations origin story on the ABC News website.
