Carole and Michael's £4.7m 18-acre home is a private family haven - inside
With the Princess of Wales undertaking "preventative" chemotherapy at home following her cancer diagnosis in early 2024, there's no other support network she would want nearby than her parents Carole and Michael Middleton.
Kate relocated from Kensington Palace in London to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor Home Park with her husband Prince William and three kids Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, and their family home is now in close proximity to Kate's former house in Berkshire.
Bucklebury Manor is less than an hour's drive from the Waleses' chosen property, meaning Kate can easily visit the place that holds many special memories for her. The sprawling £4.7million property is where Kate stayed with Prince William for several months following the birth of Prince George in 2013, and where her sister Pippa and her husband James Matthews chose to host their wedding reception in May 2017.
Inside Bucklebury Manor
Bucklebury Manor is a seven-bedroom, grade II-listed Georgian property with five reception rooms including a drawing room, a library, as well as a swimming pool, a tennis court and 18 acres of land.
Despite living in a large property, Carole insisted it wasn't a mansion. She admitted she likes to have as many Christmas trees as possible over the festive season, including one in her grandchildren’s rooms, "so that they can decorate it themselves," She mused: "That makes me sound as though I live in a mansion, doesn’t it?’
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The Middleton family have remained very private about their home, but an Instagram post shared by fan account @kensingtonfamily offered unprecedented access.
The post showed the interiors before the Middletons moved in in 2012, but they offer an idea about the space and layout of the home.
The living room featured a muted colour scheme with enough space to house multiple sofas and armchairs and a traditional log fireplace.
The open-plan kitchen was decorated with white walls and wooden furniture, including a dining table, an island unit and a dresser. The white Aga sits between two black cupboards while spotlights in the ceiling and patio doors from the snug area offer plenty of natural light.
Finally, the conservatory featured enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.
Speaking of her favourite room in their private home an interview with Good Housekeeping, she said: "My kitchen. It's a kitchen/dining/sitting room and it's the heart of the house."
The mother-of-three revealed the open-plan area makes the perfect spot for herself and Michael to host guests.
"I love a kitchen supper," she said. "Where I have a small number of guests. I'll cook something delicious and make it look lovely, then we'll finish with a kitchen disco."
Kate's brother James also gave a look at the garden when he filmed a video of himself shaving his beard in the space. As the camera panned to face his now-wife Alizee Thevenet, he inadvertently showed the patio with a grey outdoor dining table and various bushes. The clip also showed creeper plants on the rear walls of the building.
In total, the grounds surrounding the home rack up an impressive 18 acres and include a tennis court and outdoor swimming pool.
Kate also offered a glimpse of the 18-acre grounds when she shared her first official family portrait with baby George from the estate. The images showed an extensive lawn, lined with tall trees and bushes.
Former home
Carole and Micheal previously lived nearby in a five-bedroom home called Oak Acre, but they moved amid security concerns following the Prince and Princess of Wales' 2011 wedding.
She told The Telegraph she replicated the interiors of Oak Acre in their manor house. "If you choose your house wisely, you don’t have to do too much. We almost just replicated what we did before. Farrow & Ball Cord and Hay [both shades of beige] – you can’t go wrong," she said.
It is thought that Kate first introduced William to her family at her former home, where the royal reportedly landed a Chinook helicopter while he was training in the RAF.
Michael joked about the stunt during his wedding speech. "I knew things were getting serious when I found a helicopter in my garden. I thought, gosh, he must like my daughter," he reportedly said.
"I did wonder then how William was going to top this if they ever got engaged. I just thought, 'What will he do?' You can’t get much better than that and we are certainly not used to Princes landing helicopters in the garden."
LOOK: Pippa Middleton's sprawling £15m Berkshire estate is bigger than 75 football pitches
