OPINION:
The royal family can be a deeply divisive topic. Were Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex rightly justified in hastily defecting from the UK or are they overly entitled malcontents?
Is it fair or foolhardy that Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall will one day be crowned Queen Consort? And would it be better if Prince Andrew was sent to live on a remote, windswept Scottish island in the North Sea or a remote, windswept Scottish island in the Atlantic Ocean?
But one thing on which there is indisputable, unifying agreement is that as far as jobs go, no gig on the planet comes with better perks than being a working member of the royal family.
There's the being chauffeured everywhere in sleek black cars, the access to the massive jewellery trove and the fact one can swim in the indoor Buckingham Palace pool anytime one fancies. (Princess Margaret used to take a daily dip post-boozy lunch and pre-boozy dinner.)
Nothing, though, beats the real estate on offer. The Queen controls more than 160 grace-and-favour homes spread across her various estates, which she doles out to extended family members and trusted retainers who've logged decades of service. (Former royal nanny Mabel Anderson who raised Prince Charles has lived in one such home since she retired in 1981. "The Queen rings her up sometimes and Mabel goes and watches television with her," a royal source told the Times last year. "They are very cosy.")
Who gets which historic property is entirely up to the 95-year-old – and now a new report has suggested the biggest property reshuffle in a decade might be in the offing, specifically, a rejigging of things which could see William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, make history and nab the grandest prize of them all.
Sure Kate might have, in her 10 years of HRH-dom, enjoyed diamonds aplenty and a four-storey Kensington Palace apartment, but the world's most famous former part-time accessories buyer might be about to get the ultimate royal fringe benefit – her very own castle.
And not just any vast pile, mind you, but one of the most famous edifices in the United Kingdom. The place where William the Conqueror set up shop. I'm talking, of course, about Windsor Castle.
Here's what we know.
In August last year, reports first surfaced speculating that the Cambridges were "seriously considering" relocating their permanent base from London to somewhere in Windsor, where Her Majesty controls the 6070-hectare estate.
The thinking was, it would put the Duke and Duchess' family much closer to her parents Michael and Carole Middleton who are just down the road in Berkshire, and her sister Pippa Matthews' family.
There is also the fact that this would put them close to Ludgrove, the prep school which William and Harry both attended, though the Telegraph has reported that the co-educational school Lambrook is "currently top of their list".
More recently, it has been reported that the couple "have been looking at senior schools for both George and Princess Charlotte and their focus has been on the west of London." Handy then that all-boys school Eton, the storied British institution both of the princes were enrolled at, is just outside of Windsor, while Kate's alma mater, the co-ed Marlborough College, is only about an hour away.
Back when this report first landed, one theory was that the family would take over the 18th-century property of Fort Belvedere, which comes with the slightly dubious legacy of having been King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson's love nest and where he, in 1936, delivered his abdication address to the stunned British people.
(Kate would have really needed to get the sage in if they had gone down that route.)
However, while William and Kate reportedly looked at the fort, they thought it was too small.
Luckily, there is another option just up the road.
According to the Daily Mail: "Sources said they believed the couple will ultimately inherit Windsor Castle."
According to the veteran royal reporter Richard Kay, the historic monster is "apparently … earmarked for William and Kate".
"Charles finds it far too noisy – the castle is directly under the Heathrow flight path. But as an official ruefully remarked: 'Nothing is set in stone. These are decisions [Charles] does not have to make yet.'"
Here's the thing about the 1000-room behemoth – we're not just talking about another very old, very impressive place for Kate to keep her collection of Zara dresses, but the oldest continually inhabited castle in the world.
The first monarch to pick Windsor as their home was King Henry I in the early 12th century and pretty much every one of the 41 crowned heads of state since the Norman invasion has used the property. (Oliver Cromwell also managed to set up shop there during the English Civil War, when he used it as his headquarters and turned parts of it into a jail for royalist supporters.)
Windsor has been one of, if not the, primary residence of the sovereign for more than 900 years and is inherently linked in the public imagination with the crown. For that reason, if William and Kate, and their three young children, did move in, they would be, as far as I am aware, the first future king and queen to "inherit" the castle for themselves before ascending to the throne, making any such move a highly symbolic gesture.
Currently, Windsor Castle is the Queen's home base, having relocated there two years ago when the pandemic began. Also keeping her away from returning to London is the fact that Buckingham Palace is currently undergoing a nearly $700 million renovation which is not slated to be finished until 2027. (It is unlikely she will ever live in the Palace again.)
Sadly, as the nonagenarian herself said in her video address to the Cop26 climate conference in November, "none of us will live forever" and currently the chess pieces are being moved around the royal board to prepare for her sad but sadly inevitable passing in the coming years.
That reorganisation now looks to include who gets to live where.
While previously it had been reported that Prince Charles, when he finally gets the top job, would eschew taking up residence in Buckingham Palace, the Mail is also reporting that, like his parents, he plans on "living above the shop" as Prince Philip legendarily called it.
That will see their current home, Clarence House freed up - which had reportedly been slated to go to the Sussexes. However, given their peevish UK exit and relocation to California, that is now off the table. The opulent Georgian mansion could now be kept empty until Prince George reaches the age of maturity.
Meanwhile, the Cambridges' 10-bedroom Norfolk weekender, Anmer Hall, could end up vacant given they will no longer need it.
If this game of real estate musical chairs does come to pass, it could be something of a bitter pill to swallow for Netflix's most headline-making hires, Harry and Meghan. Previously, the Times has reported that they had "set their hearts" on moving into the castle and had "asked the Queen if living quarters could be made available after their marriage".
She, however, "politely but firmly suggested Frogmore Cottage", the one-time servants' quarters - the $4 million-plus renovation of which, using Sovereign Grant money - ultimately landed the Sussexes in PR hot water. (In 2020, they repaid that full amount, using potentially some of that lovely Netflix money.)
If one consults the royal family's website, Frogmore "remains their family home" but in reality they have not lived there in more than two years and since 2020, Princess Eugenie and her husband Jack Brooksbank have called it home.
If William and Kate do trade the leafy streets of Kensington for the suburban charms (cough) of Windsor, then it is possible that could make a Sussex return to the neighbourhood that much more unlikely.
For now though, stay tuned because the new, must-watch royal "show" of 2022 is going to be Billion-Dollar Listing.
• Daniela Elser is a royal expert and a writer with more than 15 years' experience working with a number of Australia's leading media titles.
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