No room for nanny as Cambridges downsize, move closer to grandparents

London: Most couples with young children dream of upsizing to give their growing brood more space to spread their wings.

Maria Boralllo, in her nanny school’s uniform, seen here with the Queen and a young Prince George, will still be the Cambridges’ carer but will no longer “live-in” with them.Credit:Files

But in the coming weeks, Prince William and Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will do the opposite, swapping their grand Kensington Palace home for a relatively modest four-bedroom cottage on the Windsor estate. This means they will navigate life without a live-in nanny for their first time in their children’s lives.

For Prince George, nine, Princess Charlotte, seven, and four-year-old Prince Louis, the move to Adelaide Cottage will represent a significant change as they are used to having Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, their Spanish nanny, on hand 24-hours a day.

Although 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.

William and Catherine hired Borrallo in 2014 when George was eight months old and she is often pictured at official events wearing the traditional brown Norland Nanny uniform.

She 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 Borrallo will remain a key figure in the children’s lives, the relocation to Windsor will usher in a new era for the Cambridge clan.

Maria Borrallo at the wedding of Catherine’s sister, Pippa Middleton, wearing her traditional uniform.Credit:AP

Life at Kensington Palace, which boasts numerous apartments and offices and borders a bustling high street, has often been likened to living in a goldfish bowl.

Their Grade II-listed cottage, built in 1831 for Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV, is 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 no longer inhabitable as it was built into a hill and was never structurally sound.

An excited Prince George, held by his nanny Maria Borrallo watches the Queen’s birthday parade in 2017.Credit:Getty Images

It places the Cambridges just a short drive from the Catherine’s parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and just a 10-minute walk from the Queen’s private apartments at Windsor Castle.

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

It has enabled the William and Catherine to enrol their children at a co-educational Berkshire prep school set in extensive grounds with on-site sports facilities.

The Cambridges like to do school drop off when they can. Here Princess Charlotte, left, with her brother Prince George and their parents Prince William and Catherine, arrives for her first day of school at Thomas’s Battersea in London, in 2019.Credit:AP

George and Charlotte currently attend school in Battersea, south London, so the move will mean a much shorter commute for the couple, who like to do the school run whenever they can.

Adelaide Cottage was refurbished in 2015 and requires no additional security measures as it is enveloped within the highly secure Windsor estate.

It was most recently occupied by Simon Rhodes, son of the Queen’s cousin, Margaret Rhodes, and Sir Hugh Roberts, former director of the Royal Collection. But its most famous resident, until now, was Group Captain Peter Townsend who lived there from 1944 with his wife Rosemary and two sons while having an affair with Princess Margaret.

Since schools broke up for the northern summer holidays in July, the Cambridges have been spending time at Anmer Hall in Norfolk.

In the coming weeks, they will travel to Scotland for their annual summer break with the Queen at Balmoral before returning to their new home.

The Telegraph, London

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