Duchess Kate and Prince William to move into their ‘forever home’ in coming weeks

Duchess Kate and Prince William are making plans to move.

The Prince and Duchess of Wales and their children Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7, hope to settle into their new “forever home” at Windsor’s Forest Lodge by early November.

That means they may have arrived in time for Guy Fawkes Night festivities on November 5, a holiday traditionally reserved for bonfires, fireworks and parties.

When it was announced that the couple had chosen to move from their current Adelaide Cottage home to an eight-bedroom house on the grounds of Windsor Great Park, palace officials told insiders they hoped to move in by Christmas. But things seem to be moving faster. Renovations were carried out faster than expected and, in agreement with the Home Office, a 150-acre cordon was set up around the house. The Daily Mail, which first reported the story, said staff had begun moving items.

The royal couple’s children will go on half-term break from Lambrook School from October 17, while Prince William, 43, will travel to Brazil from November 3 to November 7 for the Earthshot Prize event and the COP30 climate conference.

Duchess Kate, 43, is currently purchasing furniture and furnishings for her new home and will not be attending Prince William’s week-long stay in Rio de Janeiro and Belem, where he will attend COP30 gatherings.

Forest Lodge is a significant upgrade from their current home, the nearby four-bedroom Adelaide Cottage. As in Adelaide, the couple will not have any live-in staff, and the Prince and Duchess will finance the move themselves and pay market rent to the Crown Estate.

The move marks a new start for the couple after a difficult few years. Those close to them say that while they are enjoying life at Adelaide Cottage, it has also been one of the most traumatic and difficult times of their adult lives.

Within weeks of moving into Adelaide Cottage in August 2022, Prince William’s grandmother Queen Elizabeth passed away on September 8, 2022. It was the day after the children started their new school.

Then, in the first weeks of 2024, the family was hit with a double blow when Kate and Prince William’s father, King Charles, was diagnosed with cancer. Kate announced in January 2025 that she was in remission, but Charles, 76, continues to receive treatment. Last year, William said it had been a “brutal” 12 months, adding in a recent interview with Eugene Levy on the actor’s Apple TV+ series “The Reluctant Traveler” that “the worry and the stress around family stuff is pretty overwhelming because it’s more personal. It’s more personal, it’s more about emotions, it throws you off your rhythm.”

Sources say their stay at Adelaide Cottage was also a great opportunity for them to assess whether they enjoyed living in Windsor with their children who attend school in nearby Ascot.

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That was a huge positive, and Forest Lodge is now being talked about as their preferred long-term home, where they plan to stay after William ascends the throne. The couple’s staff and housekeepers, including nanny Maria Turrion Borralo, who has been with the family since George was a baby, are expected to live in other smaller quarters on the property.

The Welsh family also has a country home called Anmer Hall in Norfolk, eastern England, and Kensington Palace, which is based in London.