Kate Middleton’s Move to Windsor May Have a Surprising Health Benefit for Her

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published 3 September 2022

Goodbye Kensington Palace, hello Adelaide Cottage. According to The Independent, it is believed that the Cambridges—Prince William, Kate Middleton, and their three children Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis—are now officially residents of Windsor, moving into their new-to-them four-bedroom home this week.

“This is very much a decision that two parents have made to give their children the ‘most normal’ start possible,” a royal source tells The Independent. “KP can be a little bit of a fishbowl. They wanted to be able to give George, Charlotte, and Louis a bit more freedom than they have living in central London. It’s very much a decision that’s been led by the kids.”

Though very much a kid-centered decision, according to Hello!, the move could have a surprising health benefit for Kate, as well. The Duchess of Cambridge has revealed more than once that she has a lifelong horse allergy—which likely proves difficult, as the royal family is known for its love of horseback riding and polo. At a polo match in 2009, Australian author Kathy Lette asked Kate why she didn’t play polo herself. Kate’s response? “I’m allergic to horses.” Two years later, Clarisa Ru, wife of Santa Barbara Polo Club president Wesley Ru, told PEOPLE that Kate was attempting to overcome her allergy through exposure.

“I got a chance to have a conversation with Kate,” Ru says. “I asked if she was into polo before she met William. She said no. But she’s been riding horses for a while, and she hopes to play polo one day. She said, ‘I’m actually allergic to them, but the more time one spends with them, the less allergic you become.’”

Now, at Windsor, polo will be a big part of the family’s life going forward, with polo grounds on their doorstep, Hello! reports. As a result, Kate’s exposure to horses will become even easier with polo grounds so close by.

Apparently exposing yourself to the allergens from horses works in the same way as immunotherapy, which the NHS describes as “being given occasional small doses of the allergen” with the aim “to help your body get used to the allergen so it does not react to it so severely.” Exposure and immunotherapy doesn’t mean that Kate will overcome her allergy entirely—“this will not necessarily cure your allergy,” according to the NHS, “but it’ll make it milder and mean you can take less medicine”—and Kate will have to regularly expose herself to horses over the course of several years.

With Adelaide Cottage looking to be the Cambridges’ home for the long-term, foreseeable future, maybe a side benefit of the move is Kate will finally get to play polo alongside husband William and, perhaps, her kids one day.

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.