In the tempest of British royal drama, whispers of Prince William’s alleged dalliance with a confidante of Kate Middleton have resurfaced. Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, once again finds herself in the eye of a storm challenging the bedrock of royal fidelity.
Hanbury boasts an ancestral link to the House of Windsor, with her grandmother gracing the aisle as a bridesmaid at Queen Elizabeth II’s nuptials. Tied in matrimony to David Rocksavage, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, Hanbury shares more than just a social circle with the Cambridges—her estate neighbors theirs in the idyllic Norfolk countryside. Furthermore, she’s enjoyed a close friendship with Kate Middleton for years.
This close proximity has birthed a camaraderie both celebrated and scrutinized, particularly amid whispers of discord in the William and Kate union and the lingering gossip of a tryst between Prince William and Hanbury that has dogged the royals.
Speculation hit fever pitch following Kate Middleton’s extended retreat from the public eye post-abdominal surgery, sparking a whirlwind of conjecture and hearsay. In the midst of this maelstrom, a seemingly innocuous Mother’s Day snapshot from Kensington Palace ignited a firestorm of controversy.
The photo, featuring Kate Middleton and her offspring, fell under suspicion of digital tampering, stoking further conjecture about the Duchess’s well-being and the solidity of her marital bond. Her apology for the edited image inadvertently fanned the flames surrounding her health and the authenticity of her publicized family moments.
Even late-night host Stephen Colbert couldn’t resist a quip about the alleged affair, injecting a dose of humor into the saga on “The Late Show.”
“Now there have been rumors of an affair between William and the marching band of chicanery since 2019. According to tabloids back then, when Kate supposedly confronted him about it, he laughed it off, saying there was nothing to it,” Colbert quipped.
Despite the tantalizing material for tabloids and armchair sleuths alike, all parties have opted for a dignified silence. Kensington Palace’s tight-lipped stance, coupled with strategic appearances and communiques from the Cambridges, aimed to smother the flames. Yet, the absence of a direct rebuttal merely adds fuel to the speculative inferno.
In his latest tome, “Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival,” royal commentator Omid Scobie broached the topic with Entertainment Tonight.
“Unfortunately, if a rumor’s left to kind of do its own thing it can run 20 laps around the world before you even think about what, how you want to kind of address it,” Scobie lamented. “They never addressed it, so those rumors will never go away even though there’s no truth to suggest that they are true.”
“I was very careful in the book to really focus on this, as the allegations against William, Kate, and their fallout with Rose Hanbury,” Scobie shared. “For legal reasons there are so many things that one can’t go into but I thought it was really important, even if a rumor is a rumor. And I really don’t see proof that there is more to this than just a tittle-tattle, you know.”
“The worst case scenarios that they feared would happen, you know, just those rumors themselves were going to have enough impact, negatively, on William’s reputation.”
The royal source added, “We still see them [the rumors] trend on Twitter on a regular basis … that’s something that’s incredibly damaging, I think, for William. It probably looks even worse, actually, that there was a kind of willingness to throw Harry under the bus simply to make these things disappear.”