The Cambridges’ nanny Maria Borrallo will no longer live-in at Adelaide Cottage

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have employed nanny Maria Borrallo since Prince George was a baby. As far as the childcare we know about, Nanny Maria is seemingly their only full-time nanny. I’ve wondered at times if there are part-time nannies who come and go, especially after Kate gave birth to Louis. Maria has always been live-in, and when Kate and William travel, it’s believed that Maria takes the kids to Bucklebury and she stays with the kids even at Carole and Michael Middleton’s home. Well, weird news? Nanny Maria is no longer going to be a live-in nanny. Because Kate is being moved to Adelaide Cottage with the kids, there is no “space” to have a live-in nanny? Hm.

Most couples with young children dream of upsizing to give their growing brood more space to spread their wings. But in the coming two or three weeks, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will do the opposite, swapping their grand Kensington Palace home for a relatively modest four-bedroomed cottage on the Windsor estate, a move that will see them navigate life without a live-in nanny for their first time in their children’s lives.

For Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven and Prince Louis, four – used to having Maria Borrallo, their Spanish Norland nanny, on hand 24/7 – the move to Adelaide Cottage will represent a significant change. Although Ms Borrallo will be kept on full time, she will live elsewhere, as will the handful of other support staff that have long “lived-in” with the family at Kensington Palace, thought to include a housekeeper and a chef.

The Duke and Duchess hired Ms Borrallo in 2014 when Prince George was eight months old and she has been a regular fixture at the family’s side ever since, often pictured at official events in the traditional brown Norland uniform. Ms Borrallo sometimes travels with them on holiday and has her own apartment at the family’s Anmer Hall property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

But while she will remain a key figure in the children’s lives, the relocation to Windsor will usher in a new era for the Cambridge clan. At Adelaide Cottage, a pretty Grade II-listed property built in 1831 for Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV, they will be nestled in the heart of the Crown Estate’s Home Park, with much more scope for horse riding, walking the family dog and playing away from prying eyes. The adjoining Adelaide Lodge is unoccupied and no longer inhabitable as it is built into a hill and was never structurally underpinned.

The couple hope the move will allow them to give their children the best and most “normal” childhood possible. It will also ensure stability if they relocate next door to Windsor Castle at any point in the future.

[From The Telegraph]

All this does is bring up something which has bugged me all along about the “move to Adelaide Cottage” – it’s never made any sense if you believe the cover story about how the whole family is moving to this relatively “modest” family home. It only makes sense if you consider Adelaide to be Kate’s separation home, where she can play-act some version of a divorced mom who has her kids during the week and every other weekend. The fact that they wouldn’t give her a royal property which has enough space for staff quarters is really telling. And frankly, if the Windsors believed that William would be living full-time at Adelaide Cottage with Kate and the kids, the Cambridges would have gotten a bigger royal home with plenty of space for live-in staff.

Also: everyone is being so weird about how the Cambridges are “moving out” of Kensington Palace. They’re not. They will still retain KP, and that’s where the Cambridges’ whole office situation is, in addition to the fancy mansion-within-a-palace. William is going to live at KP. That much is clear. AND they’re keeping Anmer Hall.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.

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