Advertisement

Inside Kate Middleton's Home Life With George and Charlotte


Kate Middleton and Prince William have been living at Anmer Hall with newborn Princess Charlotte and Prince George. (Photo: Getty Images)

It’s a safe bet that Kate Middleton and Prince William are getting no sleep these days, having retreated to Anmer Hall, their English country home, with 11-day-old Princess Charlotte and 21-month-old Prince George. They “don’t have any plans other than to have a proper family life,“ a source close to the royal family tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story.

STORY: Kate Middleton, Prince William Share First Photo of Baby

Caring for a newborn and a toddler is exhausting but Middleton has plenty of help — Prince William took a 2-week paid paternity leavefrom his job as an air-ambulance pilot (he’s returning to work in several days) and Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo, the couple’s nanny (who the family hired in March 2014), is on duty as well. And of course, Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, have been a fixture in the Anmer home, helping to care for their granddaughter.

Kate Middleton and Prince William show off Princess Charlotte for the first time. (Photo: AP Images)

STORY: Kate Middleton, Prince William Welcome Baby Girl!

“Kate and William won’t be hiring a huge entourage to care for their children,” Melanie Bromley, chief news correspondent for E! News and E! Online, tells Yahoo Parenting. “Their parenting style is similar to William’s late mother Diana, princess of Wales, who was determined to raise Prince William and Prince Harry as normally as possible. She felt that her responsibility to the crowd and to the commonwealth came second to her job as a mother.”

Prince William’s job will include shift work and hard labor, but his schedule will allow him to spend ample time with his two children. “Charlotte and George will grow up seeing their father not just as a royal, but as a hard worker,” says Bromley. “He could have taken a longer paternity leave, but it’s a new job and he’s committed to it,” says Bromley.

Anmer Hall, the country home of Kate Middleton and Prince William, has 10 rooms and plenty of amenities. (Photo: Getty Images)

The couple spent $2.5 million renovating their 10-room home, located on the queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England, about 115 miles from Kensington Palace. "There’s a huge amount of private space there,” royal expert Roya Nikkhah told ABC News. “There’s an enormous garden. There’s tennis, there’s swimming — but all in one place.” And plenty of room for guests, including Harry, whose uncle status has inspired him to start his own family planning.

"Of course, I would love to have kids right now, but there’s a process that one has to go through, and tours like this are great fun,” he recently told Sky News. “Hopefully, I’m doing all right by myself. It would be great to have someone else next to me to share the pressure. But, you know, time will come, and whatever happens, happens.”

The country home (also where Princes Will and Harry vacationed as children) will give the royal couple some much-needed privacy. However, its remote location also means the world will have to wait for a second glimpse of Princess Charlotte. We first met the pint-sized royal on May 2, only a few hours after she was born, when Will and Kate posed for photos on the steps of St. Mary’s Hospital in London.

But it’s only a matter of time before the duke and duchess release the first official image of Princess Charlotte, says Bromley. In August 2014, less than one month after his birth, the royal couple shot their first family photo featuring a swaddled Prince George and their dog Lupo.

Charlotte, get ready for your close-up.

Please follow @YahooParenting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest. Have an interesting story to share about your family? Email us at YParenting (at) Yahoo.com.