When it comes to royal life, you might imagine uniformed butlers and maids sweeping around the palace, but for some members of the Royal Family, the truth is a bit more normal. In fact, the Prince and Princess of Wales don't have live-in staff at their Windsor home, Adelaide Cottage—and they also have a surprising guideline for the people who do work with them.
Prince William and Princess Kate moved to Windsor in 2022 to give their children more privacy—and to be closer to Queen Elizabeth—but their home on the Windsor Castle estate is positively modest by royal standards. With only four bedrooms, Adelaide Cottage was certainly a downsizing move from the four-story Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace.
The historic home, built in 1831 for Queen Adelaide, does not have any room for live-in staff members like longtime nanny Maria Borrallo. However, when employees are working at the house, the prince and princess request that they don't wear formal uniforms.
According to Valentine Low, author of Courtiers: The Hidden Power Behind the Crown (via the Sun), Prince William "wants it to be casual" at their home. "The kids run around the office, and he does not want it to be stuffy," a palace source told the author. The outlet continued that staff are asked "to not wear formal attire unless it is appropriate to do so."
"If we have important meetings or are going to Buckingham Palace, then, of course, we [dress up]," the Wales family staff member explained.
Their move to Adelaide Cottage surprised many royal watchers due to its smaller size, but at the time, insiders noted that living at Kensington Palace—a public tourist attraction—meant the family felt trapped in a bubble.
"The reality is they are quite confined in what they can do in London," a friend told the Sunday Times in 2022. "The kids can't go into the park and kick a football with friends." Moving to the secure Windsor Castle estate has given them a greater sense of freedom, and the ability to have "normalizing experiences," too.
In the recent Channel 5 documentary Prince George: How To Make a Monarch, royal experts shared what the prince's upbringing is like and how William and Kate are careful to give him a taste of a more "normal" childhood. According to psychotherapist Lucy Beresford, this gives George, Charlotte and Louis "that grounded sense that they are human beings like the rest of us, they're not rarefied, they're not elevated and it could hopefully dilute that sense of 'I'm invincible'."
