Following the coronation of his father, King Charles III in May 2023, Prince William wholeheartedly embraced his role as heir to the throne. With his new position, he inherited a vast fortune and became one of England’s biggest landowners. As the new Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall, he inherited the Duchy of Cornwall, a vast estate that spans some 20 counties, with assets valued at nearly £1 billion ($1.3bn).
As the Prince and Princess of Wales balance these extra pressures with the responsibilities of the crown, as well as raising a young family, click or scroll through take to a closer look at the places the royal couple have called home through the years...
Like his father, Prince William has had a long time to prepare for his new position and his responsibilities now include an estate that brought in a reported £21 million ($27m) in 2021 according to British newspaper The Guardian.
But it hasn’t been plain sailing for the young couple. In February 2024, the King announced he had been diagnosed with cancer, and just a month later, Catherine confirmed she was undergoing chemotherapy for the disease according to The BBC.
The Duchy of Cornwall's portfolio includes housing developments, holiday cottages, farms, woodland, coastlines and a third of Dartmoor National Park including its notorious prison, as well as Poundbury, the model village that King Charles began building in 1993.
The Duchy also owns Highgrove House and most of the land on the Isles of Scilly. But where did it all begin for the Prince? Let's start at the beginning...
The Prince was born on 21 June 1982, a year after the then Prince Charles and Princess Diana took up residence in Apartments 8 and 9 in Kensington Palace following their fairytale wedding at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Purchased by King William III as a country retreat back in 1689, the palace has been home to many royals, including Queen Victoria and Princess Margaret, and remains the London base of the Prince and Princess of Wales, although their permanent home is now at Windsor.
This family photograph was taken in the living room of their Kensington Palace apartment. The apartment is located within the quadrangle that sits between Clock Court and Ivy Cottage, and is one of several royal apartments within the palace.
A much-loved son, Prince William is now heir apparent or direct heir to the throne. No surprise, then, that he lived in a palace fit for a king, surrounded by sumptuous furnishings and paintings in gilt frames.
Princess Diana turned the apartments into a comfy family home, converting the entire top floor into a playroom and two bedrooms.
She enlisted the help of interior designer Dudley Poplak and kitted them out with furnishings from luxury children’s design company Dragons.
The palace became even more of a playground for the young Prince when his little brother Prince Harry came along two years later on 15 September 1984.
As the new head of the Duchy of Cornwall, the Prince has inherited Highgrove House, the property and gardens that his father spent the past 40 years transforming into a verdant paradise.
The young Prince and his family split their time between Kensington Palace and their Windsor home, Adelaide Cottage, so they have no plans to move in. Instead, King Charles and Queen Camilla will continue to use the house as tenants.
Highgrove House was an exciting place for the young princes to grow up and they were free to roam in the surrounding countryside. Countless pictures, like this one taken in July 1986, depict the boys enjoying themselves in the meadows adjoining the house.
In many ways, the house represents the innocence of childhood, before Princes William and Harry became all too aware of life in the constant glare of the media.
Like most members of the royal family, the Prince was encouraged to start riding almost as soon as he could walk. Here he is at Highgrove House in 1986 with his Shetland pony, Smokey, the royal family’s choice of breed for a child’s debut in the saddle.
The Prince has also encouraged his own children to ride, and British magazine Woman and Home reported he borrowed his cousin Zara Tindall’s Shetland pony when Prince George was four.
The Prince of Wales spent every Christmas of his childhood at Sandringham House in Norfolk, which was one of the late Queen’s favourite properties. She would remain at the house every year until early February, to pay homage to her father King George VI, who passed away there on 6 February 1952.
The house dates back to Elizabethan times and was a gift from Queen Victoria to her son, the future King Edward VII.
Once described as "the most comfortable house in England" by Charles Wynn-Carington, a friend of Edward's, Sandringham was one of the first grand houses in the country to boast gas lighting, flushing toilets and working showers.
It has a somewhat more relaxed feel, compared to most regal residences. The ground floor is decorated in elegant Edwardian style, with richly upholstered furniture and drapes, and a roaring hearth taking centre stage in this reception room.
Sandringham is normally open to the public when the royals aren't in residence.
Much of the land that makes up the Isles of Scilly is owned and managed by the Prince under the Duchy of Cornwall.
The young Prince Charles bought a bungalow in the historic Garrison area of St Mary’s, the largest of the islands, when he was a 20-year-old bachelor in 1969 as reported by UK architectural website Building Design. He later renovated Tamarisk in 2016 and let it out to members of the wider royal household.
The islands proved an ideal place to take his wife, Princess Diana, and two sons Princes William and Harry however, who can be seen here setting off for a bike ride in 1989.
Those childhood holidays must have struck a chord with Prince William as he made an official visit to the Isles of Scilly with his wife Kate in 2016, taking in the picturesque Tresco Abbey Garden, on the island of Tresco, seen here.
He then returned with the whole family in 2019 and several times since and British magazine Hello! reported he resided at the stunning Dolphin House, which is between the Tresco Abbey Garden and the Tresco Island Spa.
The property is set behind a walled garden, sleeps ten, and has verdant views of the surrounding coastline which has been described as the ‘Cornish Caribbean’.
Following his father's rise to the throne, the Prince also took on his Scottish titles.
The Prince and Princess of Wales are now known as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland and William will be titled the Earl of Carrick, Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles and Prince and Great Steward of Scotland.
It will give new significance to his annual stays at Balmoral Castle in the Highlands of Scotland, which has been a royal residence since 1852.
The Prince of Wales has been spending part of his summer at Balmoral since he was a child, a tradition he has continued with his own family to the present day.
In years gone by, it was a great opportunity for the Prince to spend quality time with the late Queen, who is seen here in a family photograph with seven of her great-grandchildren and the late Prince Philip, taken by the Duchess of Cambridge in 2018 at the castle.
While Balmoral holds some of the Prince's happiest memories, it also holds some of his saddest. It was here, in 1997, that he learned of his mother’s death in Paris, following a car crash after a paparazzi pursuit.
This photo was taken just before he received the tragic news. “I was in Balmoral when I was told that my mother had died,” he said later as reported by The BBC. “Still in shock, I found sanctuary in the service at Crathie Kirk that very morning and in the dark days of grief that followed, I found comfort and solace in the Scottish outdoors.”
Around the same time, Kate, now Princess of Wales but then Catherine Middleton, was at Downe House School. Prior to this, she was a studious and sporty pupil at St Andrew's, a private school in Pangbourne, Berkshire (she is pictured front, far left). Not to be confused with St. Andrews University in Scotland, where she later met William at, of course.
This is a rare picture of Kate in childhood, before her royal romance. But where did the princess begin her life and property journey?
Born on 9 January 1982, the new Princess of Wales was the eldest child of Michael and Carole Middleton. A world away from the royal estates, Catherine Middleton spent her early years in this charming yet modest property in Bradfield Southend in Berkshire, England.
Her parents worked for British Airways when they bought this four-bedroomed red-brick property in 1979 for £34,700 ($44k), which was on sale in 2011 for almost £500,000 ($652k).
The Middletons moved to a larger property in the hamlet of Chapel Row, near Bucklebury in West Berkshire in 1995, following the success of their business, Party Pieces.
Oak Acre, a large detached house, which cost them £250,000 ($326k), was set on one-and-a-half acres of land (6 ha) and could only be accessed via a private road, which they would appreciate in the years that followed.
Michael and Carole are photographed here in November 2010, following the announcement of the engagement of their daughter Catherine to the then-Prince William.
The Prince and Princess of Wales met at the University of St Andrews in Fife, Scotland, and spent their first year living in St Salvator’s Hall, where they became close friends.
Affectionately known as Sallies, the student residence has 65 single rooms and 63 shared, along with an oak-panelled dining room and stained glass windows commemorating benefactors of the university.
Once described as a “rambling Gothic dormitory”, it is generally considered to be one of the finest student halls.
Having become inseparable during their first year, the pair teamed up with friends to rent a two-storey house together in their second year at 13a Hope Street, pictured here, for just £100 per week ($130) each. A three-bedroom basement flat on the street is for sale with Savills for £625,000 ($808k).
Quickly becoming an item, they were an established couple by their third year and moved to a four-bedroom cottage called Balgove House with friends on the Strathtyrum Estate, a 400-acre private country pile owned by Henry Cheape, a distant cousin of the Prince.
As their relationship became more publicised, the couple would escape most weekends to a secret getaway on the Balmoral estate called Tam-na-Ghar cottage, which had been gifted to the Prince by his great-grandmother the Queen Mother just before she died.
According to British magazine Woman and Home, the couple still use the charming three-bedroom property when things get too busy at the main house during their annual stay at the Scottish estate.
After graduation in 2005, Prince William joined the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, becoming an officer a year later, at the age of 24, and then serving as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, a job he later described as his “greatest calling in life”.
Kate’s appearance at his passing out parade at Sandhurst in December 2006, alongside the late Queen and her parents, was viewed as a clear indication that the pair might marry in the future.
In between his military training and holidays with Kate, Prince William lived at Clarence House in London with his brother Prince Harry.
Located next to St James’s Palace, the John Nash-designed building was built for the Duke of Clarence in 1827 and has been home to King Charles lll and Queen Camilla for the past 20 years.
According to Hello! magazine, the couple will remain here until renovation works are completed at Buckingham Palace.
Meanwhile, Kate lived with her sister Pippa in their parents’ flat in the heart of Chelsea, working for a family friend at the clothing store Jigsaw.
Spread out over three floors with three bedrooms, the property reportedly cost them £780,000 ($1m) in 2002 when they bought it, and later sold for just under £1.9 million ($2.5m) in 2019.
A refuge for Kate during a period when when her relationship with Prince William was under huge scrutiny, the couple split for a few months, before secretly making a pact while on holiday in the Seychelles, to get married when the time was right.
Flats in the block are still popular. A two-bedroom flat (pictured) was available recently for £4,000 (£5.2k) per month with Fraser Bond.
William and Kate finally announced their engagement in the State Rooms of St James’s Palace in central London in November 2010.
The royal couple had become engaged in October, while on holiday in Kenya, and planned to marry the following spring or summer. It proved to be the biggest royal wedding since Prince Charles and Diana married in 1981.
Excitement reached fever pitch by the time the royal couple kissed on the iconic balcony of Buckingham Palace on 29 April 2011.
While Prince William has never lived at Buckingham Palace, it has been a constant throughout his life, from his regular appearances on the balcony as a child to its starring role in his wedding.
As well as a formal lunch for 600 guests at the Palace, hosted by his grandmother the late Queen Elizabeth II, there was also a dinner for 300.
The royal couple had already been living together at a four-bedroom farmhouse on the Bodorgan estate on the Welsh island of Anglesey prior to their marriage while Prince William completed his Royal Air Force training.
They rented the property from Lord and Lady Meyrick for about £750 ($977) per month but left before the birth of their first child in 2013. The Prince told various news outlets: "This island has been our first home together, and it will always be an immensely special place for us."
Another special place, The Middletons' country home in Bucklebury has been a key location in the couple’s family life together since Michael and Carole Middleton bought the stunning Georgian house for an estimated £4.7 million ($6.1m) in 2012.
The Grade II-listed house features seven bedrooms, five reception rooms, a swimming pool and a tennis court. Set on 18 acres (7ha) of land, it has provided a refuge for the royal couple and their family over the years.
After giving birth to Prince George on 22 July 2013 at the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London, the royal couple drove directly to the Middleton manor in Bucklebury so that Kate could recuperate after the birth, benefitting from her mother’s support during those first weeks of motherhood.
It was here that official photographs of their first child George, who is second in line to the throne, were taken by Kate’s father Michael Middleton, in the garden with their black cocker spaniel, Lupo.
Following the birth of George, the family took up residence in Apartment 1A of Kensington Palace, which was formerly home to Princess Margaret, the late Queen’s sister.
Before they moved into the 20-room apartment, they undertook a £4.5 million ($5.8m) refurbishment, which was paid for out of the Sovereign Grant, given to the monarch from the treasury.
The couple moved to Windsor in the summer of 2022 but continue to use Kensington Palace as their London base.
In May of 2015, the couple welcomed Princess Charlotte, third in line to the throne and pictured here in 2019 with her older brother George.
After Charlotte's birth, the couple remained at Apartment 1A as they had plenty of space for their growing family. The residence takes up four entire floors and over half the Clock Tower wing of the palace, so there was plenty of space for the young royals. But it wasn't all play...
Pictured here is the Drawing Room of Apartment 1A, where the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry entertained former US President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama before attending a private dinner party in 2016.
That same year, a royal spokesperson confirmed that Apartment 8 of Kensington was to be used as a workspace for the royal couple's official responsibilities and charitable work.
During the same visit, a young Prince George had the chance to thank Barack and Michelle for the rocking horse they sent to the young Prince for his first birthday, which came complete with the presidential seal on its saddle.
They're pictured here in one of the apartment’s five reception rooms, featuring cosy window seats and charming sash windows. Kate is said to have chosen many of the furnishings herself.
The stunning Georgian mansion Anmer Hall was given to the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge by the late Queen as a wedding gift and became their main residence before Prince George started school at Thomas’s School in London in 2017.
The Norfolk-based estate worked very well for the family when William was a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, and allowed the couple to raise their young family away from the media spotlight.
On 23 April 2018, the couple had their third child, Prince Louis, pictured here with his older sister at Anmer Hall. Kate took the picture herself before sharing it on Instagram.
The couple lived here between 2015 and 2017, before they moved back to London full-time, but continued to use Anmer Hall as their country residence, spending time here at weekends and during the holidays.
Amid a flurry of rumours that a possible move was on the cards, the Prince and Princess of Wales finally relocated their family to Windsor in the summer of 2022.
There were several reasons for the move, not least to be closer to the late Queen, who had been experiencing fragile health in the final months of her life.
The couple were also keen to give their children a more normal childhood in a rural setting, and enrolled all three children at Lambrook Prep School in Berkshire, not far from where Kate grew up.
The family are currently residing at Grade ll-listed Adelaide Cottage, which is a short walk from St George’s Chapel on the Windsor estate.
The four-bedroom property, built back in 1831 for King William IV's wife, Queen Adelaide, was renovated in 2015 and did not require a costly refurbishment before they moved in, which was important to the couple.
The cottage is also conveniently close to Kate's parents, who live a 45-minute drive from Windsor Great Park, as well as her sister Pippa.
Over the centuries, the cottage was a favourite retreat of Queen Victoria and once housed Princess Margaret’s lover, Group Captain Peter Townsend.
British magazine Town&Country reported it boasted opulent interiors, including a ceiling covered with gilded dolphins, a rope decoration from a 19th-century royal yacht in the master bedroom and a stately marble Graeco-Egyptian fireplace.
Post-renovation, however, the cottage is believed to have a more modest design, and although little is known about the current interiors, this image of Kate in the home’s living room, taken from a video she delivered on behalf of the Forward Trust for Addiction Awareness Week 2022, suggests a cosy, French Country-inspired aesthetic.
The family no doubt have heaps of outside space at Adelaide Cottage, but should they have wanted a more exciting place where their children could play, they must have been delighted to hear a new playground called Adventure Play had opened near their home in 2023.
The couple found themselves at the centre of a furore however, when parents complained about the steep prices in the middle of a cost of living crisis, according to UK newspaper the Express. The royal couple have nothing to do with the playground itself, but it is in Windsor Great Park and part of the Crown Estate, hence they found themselves in the firing line.
Elsewhere on the royal estate, there has been the ongoing drama of whether or not King Charles' brother, the beleaguered Prince Andrew, will be forced to vacate his long-time Windsor home, the Royal Lodge.
Rumours circulated that Charles had earmarked the property for William and Kate as a more befitting residence for their position as Prince and Princess of Wales, although the couple are said to have no interest in moving to the Lodge according to US celebrity news site Page Six.
Meanwhile, the King has urged Andrew to move to from The Royal Lodge, seen here in 1937, to Frogmore Cottage, from which Prince Harry and Megan Markle were evicted in early 2023.
The monarch has threatened to sever all ties with his disgraced brother, who was forced to quit following the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, unless he accepts his offer of the home along with a reasonable financial support package provided by his private funds from the Duchy of Lancaster according to British newspaper the Daily Mail.
While a move to the Royal Lodge may not be on the cards after all, Prince William may need to consider a property more in line with his role as heir to the throne in the future, possibly even Windsor Castle itself.
But with three young children enrolled in the nearby Lambrook School, the Duke and Duchess are unwilling to uproot their young family for the time being according to UK magazine Marie Claire.
In an appearance on UK TV show This Morning in February 2023, royal correspondent Camilla Tominey revealed that the Waleses are "actually quite happy in Adelaide Cottage" for the time being.
Upheaval of any kind seems off the cards since the Princess of Wales announced in a video message in March 2024 that she has been undergoing chemotherapy for cancer following abdominal surgery the previous January.
Following weeks of uncertainty and frenzied speculation over an edited Mother’s Day photo, the Princess put paid to conspiracy theories and appealed for time and privacy as she and her young family faced the issue, as reported by The BBC.
"For everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope," she said. "You are not alone."
Royal watchers were reassured when this beautiful image of the princess, photographed in natural surroundings near her home, was released a couple of months later. Looking lost in thought under a weeping willow tree on the Windsor estate, the Princess said she had been "blown away" by the kind messages of encouragement and support she had received.
"I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days." She said her treatment would continue for "a few more months", and she added, rather poignantly given the setting: "I am not out of the woods yet."
The princess also announced in that message that she would be attending Trooping the Colour the following day, which was her first public appearance since she announced her cancer diagnosis in March.
In an event that celebrates the birthday of the reigning British monarch, it seemed a significant way to signal to the world that, despite all the sadness and challenges of recent times, this young family are united and ready to shoulder the full responsibilities of the crown.
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