Prince William, Kate Middleton leave pals 'aghast' with planned move to countryside

Prince William and Kate Middleton are said to be planning to relocate to Windsor to raise their family amid reports that they find their Kensington home claustrophobic.

The couple is reportedly planning a "permanent" move to Berkenshire because they see it as "the perfect place" to raise their family of five. They currently split their time between their apartment in Kensington Palace and Anmer Hall. But they believe that "at their stage in life, suburbia makes perfect sense."

However, their London friends are said to be "aghast" by the planned move. Likewise "green-welly friends" consider this corner of Berkenshire "as not proper countryside and horribly naff."

"People can be very snotty about that area west of London, but that mainly comes out of ignorance," a friend of Prince William from Eton University who grew up around Windsor Great Park told The Telegraph adding, "It's picturesque and also meaningfully close to town, unlike other parts of the Home Counties."

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are reportedly eyeing the Grade II listed house, Fort Belvedere, that sits towards the end of Windsor Great Park. It is within 30 minutes of London and is surrounded by 135 acres of its own grounds. Queen Elizabeth II had the estate rented to Canadian billionaire Galen Weston since the seventies.

"It makes utter sense. If you're a working Royal, what people regard as 'real country' is not going to fit. Here, we're used to celebrities, there's no fuss, and you can pull up the drawbridge. I'd say that there's no better area for the Cambridges," Sue Barnes, of Lavender Green Flowers, said of the family's planned move to Windsor.

The somewhat secluded location will provide the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge the privacy they need to raise their children away from the public eye. It will also work in the duchess' favour since they will live close to her parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, who live 15 miles away from Windsor in Bucklebury.

The reported move comes after sources claimed that Prince William and Kate Middleton find their Kensington home "a bit claustrophobic." They also want to move to Windsor so they can be "on hand to support" Queen Elizabeth II as much as possible.