Before she moved into a string of royal estates, Catherine, Princess of Wales grew up in two quaint family homes in Berkshire.
Her first childhood home—where she lived most of the time from birth to age 13—was a 4-bedroom cottage in Bradfield, Berkshire. In a rare 2018 Telegraph interview, Kate Middleton’s mother, Carole Middleton, described it as “a very sweet semi-detached cottage,” adding later that “the children spent a lot of their youth there.”
Kate’s time living there was interrupted by her family’s move to Jordan for almost three years, as her father, Michael Middleton, worked for British Airways in Amman. They moved in May 1984, when the future princess was 2 years old, per her official royal bio. The family returned to Berkshire in 1986.
Michael Middleton, Kate Middleton, and Carole Middleton in December 2006.
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Almost a decade later, it was time for another move. The Middletons, including Kate’s younger siblings Pippa and James, relocated to Oak Acre in Bucklebury, Berkshire. A 5-bedroom home, it represented an upgrade from their earlier dwelling. Carole and Michael would stay there through Kate’s college years, moving to their current home in 2012.
Here’s everything to know about Kate Middleton’s childhood homes, a foundational part of her pre-royal life.
Her family’s first home was a charming brick two-story.
Kate Middleton’s childhood home in Bradfield, Berkshire, known as West View. Pictured in 2011.
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Michael and Carole bought their first family home, known as West View, in 1979, per CNN. Its proximity to Heathrow Airport may have been a motivating factor, as both of them worked for British Airways. The couple spent £34,700 to buy the 4-bedroom property, according to Forbes. In 2011, it went up for sale with an estimated value of £495,000 (approximately $806,000 at the time, the outlet reported).
“This is a very pretty house that perhaps has the childhood memories still haunting the place from Catherine Middleton,” broker Dudley Singleton told Forbes ahead of the sale.
Kate’s mother started a successful business in the backyard shed.
Michael and Carole Middleton, parents of Kate Middleton, in November 2010.
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Singleton gave CNN a tour of the property while it was on the market in 2011. A dining room sat immediately through the front door, adjacent to a set of stairs leading to the second story. Past the dining room was a sitting room with windows looking out into a manicured garden. Upstairs, he showed the Duchess of Cambridge’s former bedrooms—one in the attic with a slanted roof wall, and another on the upper level with a double bed and desk where Singleton recalled her studying.
Outside, they saw the sheds where Kate’s mother launched the family business that would eventually earn millions. “They were not pretentious people,” the broker said of the Middletons. “They lived here well after they were very successful with their business, still running their business [Carole Middleton’s party supply company, Party Pieces, which she sold in 2023] out of the shed. Not prepared to move until everything was really long-established.”
Her second childhood home was the $2.1 million Oak Acre.
A rear view of Oak Acre, Kate Middleton’s second childhood home in Bucklebury. 2010.
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With three children and a booming business, the West View house may have become crowded for the Middletons. In 1995, they bought a larger, detached home known as Oak Acre, located in Bucklebury, Berkshire. This property remained the Middleton family home while a teenaged Kate attended Marlborough College in Wiltshire. If she ever brought college sweetheart Prince William home on breaks, it was to Oak Acre.
Speaking to the Express in 2010, Singleton estimated that Oak Acre was worth an estimated £1.6 million (equivalent to about $2.1 million). They sold it one year after Kate’s royal wedding, in 2012, moving to the £4.7 million Bucklebury Manor for more privacy. Carole and Michael remain at the Grade II listed Bucklebury Manor today, even hosting daughter Pippa’s wedding reception there in 2017, per the BBC.
Prince William once landed a helicopter on the grounds.
Prince William at the Central Flying School at RAF Cranwell in April 2008.
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The Bucklebury countryside is known for its thick woodlands, which add an extra layer of privacy to the exclusive area, attracting a less-flashy set. “We have more than our fair share of multi-millionaires living here but you’d never guess it because they are discreet,” Singleton shared with the Telegraph.
It must have been quite a surprise, then, when Prince William landed a Royal Air Force Chinook helicopter on the grounds in April 2008. While it seems like a romantic gesture reminiscent of The Bachelor, the trip was officially “a training mission designed to help teach the Prince, who is on a brief detachment to the air force from the army, to fly in combat situations,” per a Time magazine article paraphrasing the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense.