After an incredibly challenging 12 months, Princess Kate recently announced that her cancer is in remission. She shared the happy news after spending an emotional day at the hospital where she was treated, the Royal Marsden, marking her first solo engagement in more than a year.

While Kate underwent chemotherapy, she spent most of the year away from the bright spotlight usually trained on the Royal Family, focusing on her recovery and well-being. The future Queen did attend a handful of major engagements with the rest of the Windsors – including last year’s Trooping the Colour. She also hosted her annual carol service at Westminster Abbey last Christmas.

But away from the public eye, she is believed to have spent a lot of time at the home of her parents – Carole, 69, and Michael, 75 – recuperating in their idyllic rural home of Bucklebury Manor, which is valued at £4.7 million. The Grade II listed property dates back to the Georgian period and is located in a picturesque village of the same name in Berkshire.

Bucklebury Manor has been owned by the Middletons since 2012 ( Image: Joan Wakeham/REX/Shutterstock)

The Princess of Wales likely received some much-needed TLC from her parents – with whom she is known to be incredibly close. Carole and Michael’s lavish property is conveniently located near Kate’s Windsor home, only 45 minutes drive away from Adelaide Cottage – where she resides with Prince William and her three children, Prince George, 11, Princess Charlotte, nine, and Prince Louis, six.

As reported in Fabulous magazine, royal expert Ingrid Seward – Editor in Chief of Majesty Magazine – said the Middleton home was a “gorgeous” place for Kate to get away from it all.

“The Middleton house is gorgeous. I think it is an old manor house. It’s got a lot of grounds. I think it’s got its own stream going through it,” she said. “Tennis courts, I mean, typically Middleton. They’ve made it absolutely gorgeous.

“Bucklebury is a really, really pretty place to be. It’s got great avenues of oak trees, so yes, I can imagine that Kate would have a great time there, and she’s got her mum to look after her as well.”

Carole and Michael bought Bucklebury Manor back in 2012 – shortly after Kate officially joined the Royal Family upon her marriage to Prince William – and the stunning property boasts seven bedrooms, a drawing room, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and 18 sprawling acres of land, making it the perfect family haven for Kate when she needed some privacy.

Carole has said the kitchen is the ‘heart’ of her home ( Image: Kensington Palace)

When Kate was pregnant with Prince George, she suffered from extreme morning sickness and was reported to have spent some time at Bucklebury Manor whilst she was feeling unwell – and after the birth of her and William’s first child, the couple are believed to have stayed with Carole and Michael as they transitioned to life as parents.

Kate’s sister Pippa is reported to have hosted her wedding reception at the picturesque property back in 2017 – and during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, the future Queen’s brother, James, shared images of the home on social media, whilst he and his wife quarantined with Carole and Michael.

The seven-bedroom sprawling property is something of a family haven for all the Middleton siblings, with Carole revealing that during the festive period, she opts to put up Christmas trees all around the property, including in the rooms her grandchildren stay so they can try their hand at decorating themselves. “That makes me sound as though I live in a mansion, doesn’t it?” Carole reportedly joked, per Hello magazine.

Kate is really close to her parents ( Image: PA)

Carole and Michael featured in heavily in a candid video released by Kate ( Image: Getty Images)

The Middleton matriarch has also revealed to Good Housekeeping that her favourite space in her home is the kitchen itself -and that she loves to host friends and family for dinner.

“It’s a kitchen/dining/sitting room and it’s the heart of the house,” Carole explained, adding that the open plan aspect to the space makes it ideal for hosting. “I love a kitchen supper,” Carole added. “Where I have a small number of guests. I’ll cook something delicious and make it look lovely, then we’ll finish with a kitchen disco.”

Ingrid Seward explained that “The Middletons are very, a very tight-knit family, and they all seem to support each other, which is how Kate was brought up, which is probably why she’s so stable and able to deal with whatever life throws at her, and I think they all get together, and they play games like a very old fashioned family they’ve got.

Carole has revealed she goes the extra mile for her grandchildren at Christmas ( Image: Kensington Palace)

“They play tennis. They swim. They’re very, very sporty, but of course, Kate wouldn’t have been able to be very sporty, so I think she just would have played a lot of sort of family games and been in the bosom of the family, and I think we saw a bit of it in the video that Kate and William put out last summer.

“I think that is very much Kate’s home life which she’s, you know, tried to recreate in her own life.”

When Kate announced in September that she had finished her course of chemotherapy she released a candid video filled with clips of the Wales family spending time together – and Carole and Michael were crucially featured in the montage, seen playing cards around a dining table with the future King and Queen and the three Wales youngsters – showing the central role they have played in Kate’s support system as she focussed on getting better.