Prince William and Kate Middleton are leaving London

These are times of change for the British royal family. Internal and external circumstances are causing the Windsors to readjust for the future. Led by the relentless Elizabeth II, who at 96 is still at the head of the family, Henry and Meghan Markle’s departure for California, and Prince Andrew’s fall from grace after his involvement with the pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, have forced the family members to change tasks and even physical locations. A few months ago, the monarch decided to leave Buckingham Palace behind and settle permanently in Windsor. She will not be alone: her grandson William, his wife Kate Middleton and their three children will soon join her.

The Sunday Times published an exclusive article announcing that the United Kingdom’s favorite royal couple will move in September. William of England, Kate Middleton and their three children—George, eight years old; Charlotte, seven and Louis, four—will leave London to move to Windsor. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will not live in the castle with the queen. (Windsor is, in fact, her favorite residence, where she took refuge with her sister Margaret during the bombing of London in World War II.) Rather, they will settle in one of the other existing residences on the grounds.

According to the same source, George and Charlotte will leave the London Thomas Battersea school at the end of this year and, along with their younger brother, enroll in one of the schools in the area. Windsor is about an hour by direct train from London. The duke and duchess will be just a 45-minute drive from Kensington Palace, which will remain their headquarters in the capital, and they will keep an apartment there. Their central offices and press and communication team will also remain in the capital.

The Windsor location has several advantages. William and Kate enjoy the country life, having spent the first years of their marriage at Anmer Hall estate in the north of England, a place they continue to visit regularly. They will also be close to Carole and Michael Middleton, Kate’s parents, who live in the town of Bucklebury, just 45 minutes from Windsor. The family plans to stay in Windsor as long as the children are in school, that is, for at least the next decade.

But the main benefit of the move will be to stay close to the queen, Elizabeth II. William is second in line to the throne. Particularly since Henry left official family duties two years ago, William maintains a close relationship both with his father, who lives in Clarence House in London, and with his grandmother Elizabeth.

The changes come just as William of England is reaching a vital milestone: the eldest son of Charles and the late Diana of Wales will turn 40 in just a week. The occasion is “overwhelming,” according to sources close to the Sunday Times, and it has led him to the decision to leave the “confined” life of London to give himself and his family greater freedom.

Where exactly they will live remains to be seen. The Windsor grounds contain several residences. In fact, Henry and Meghan Markle remodeled one of them, Frogmore Cottage, in an expensive project paid for by the taxpayers. Andrew of England, the third son of Elizabeth II, also lives in the area. He has been seen going riding recently, after missing the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations due to a timely coronavirus. According to the newspaper, he could soon move to Scotland, allowing William and his family to cross paths as little as possible with the royal family’s primary persona non grata.