Now this Rose Hanbury he has officially denied having an affair with Prince William amidst the continuous Kate Middleton conspiracy theories, many online are starting to examine where the origin of the rumors began.
On Monday, lawyers for the 40-year-old Marchioness of Cholmondeley said Business Insider that any and all reports of inappropriate relations between William, 41, and Hanbury “are completely false.” Furthermore, Kensington Palace refused to answer questions about the nature of their relationship.
It all comes as the Princess of Wales, 42, continues to recover from a January flare-up Abdominal surgery and she more recent Photoshop controversy that caused much theorizing about his whereabouts. The notable absence since December 25th has created a vacuum on social media for millions of people to speculate wildly about Kate’s condition – described as non-cancerous by Kensington Palace – and where she has been this entire time.
Among the full list of theories are several that prominently feature Hanbury’s name in connection with resurfacing rumors of an affair with the next in line to the British throne.
Below, ET has compiled answers to some of the Internet’s most pressing questions about Hanbury and her connection to the future king of England.
Who is Rose Hanbury?
Rose is 40 years old and a former model. She is officially Sarah Rose Cholmondeley, Marchioness of Cholmondeley. She and her husband David Rocksavage, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, share three children – 15-year-old twins Alexander Hugh George Cholmondeley, Earl of Rocksavage; Lord Oliver Timothy George Cholmondeley; and his 8-year-old daughter, Lady Iris Marina Aline Cholmondeley.
Rose previously held the position of researcher for Michael Andrew Gove, Member of Parliament and current Secretary of State for Leveling Up, Housing and Communities. According to The IndependentRose now manages her husband’s estate.
The couple met in Italy in 2003 and got engaged six years later. They married in a private ceremony at Chelsea Town Hall in London in 2009.
A long real connection
Rose’s family is said to have a long history with the British royal family. According to reports, her grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Lambart, served as one of Queen Elizabeth II’s bridesmaids when she married Phillip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in 1947.
Fast forward to the present day, Rose’s son, Lord Oliver, served as one of the four pages of honor for King Charles’ coronation ceremony. The Pages were part of the procession through the Nave of Westminster Abbey. The King’s Pages of Honor also included HRH Prince George of Wales, Master Nicholas Barclay and Master Ralph Tollemache.
They are former neighbors
William and Kate were once neighbors of Rose and David. Rose rarely gives interviews, but in a 2023 interview with English house she was asked to describe her home.
“It’s a Palladian house built in the 1720s for Britain’s first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who employed the best architects, decorators and designers of the time,” she said. “Colen Campbell was the architect and William Kent designed the interiors. The house today looks much as it did then, which is a testament to the incredible care the house received from its former occupants and David’s family.”
Rose said she had to adapt to the gigantic house when she moved in in 2009.
“Moving anywhere felt strange at first and it took me a while to adjust and feel at home,” she said. “We use the ground floor, and the second and third floors, where the bedrooms are. The first floor is mainly occupied by the State Rooms. I don’t know how many bedrooms we have in total.”
Relationship Rumors
Speculation about an affair between the future King of England and Rose first surfaced in April 2019, after a UK tabloid sparked the rumor following an alleged fallout between Rose and Kate. It was around this time, during an outing, that Kate was also seen apparently taking a dig at William’s PDA, which only added fuel to the fire.
It didn’t help matters when Rose attended King Charles’ coronation early last May, although there were no photos of her with Kate, who married William at an extravagant wedding in April 2011.
Kensington Palace never addressed the rumor, and royal expert Omid Scobie briefly mentioned the allegation in his book, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survivalbut he told ET in November, he didn’t believe the rumor either.
“Unfortunately, if a rumor fails to do its thing, it can go 20 times around the world before you even think about what, how you want to deal with it,” the royal expert and author told ET. “They never addressed the issue, so these rumors will never go away, even though there is no truth to suggest they are true.”
The mere mention of the rumor became a touchy subject for the royal expert.
“I was very careful in the book to really focus on that, like the accusations against William, Kate and their fallout with Rose Hanbury,” he said. “For legal reasons, there are so many things you can’t address, but I thought it was really important, even if a rumor is a rumor. And I really don’t see proof that there’s more to it than just a title. -tattle, you know .
In a statement released on March 18, the former British model and mother of three finally broke her silence on the speculation, vehemently denying the rumors.
“The rumors are completely false,” Hanbury’s lawyers said Business Insider.
What the palace says
Scobie’s estimate is that the palace indirectly addressed the Rose-William affair rumor – offering Prince Harry and Meghan Markle as sacrificial lambs amid its consequences with the palace.
“I thought it was really interesting to look at how the palace handled this,” says the author, referring to UK journalists looking for any shred of evidence that might suggest the extramarital affair was true. “The worst-case scenarios that they feared would happen, you know, just those rumors would have enough of an impact, negatively, on William’s reputation. We still see them trend (the rumors) on Twitter regularly… this is something that is incredibly damaging, I think, to William. It probably seems even worse, in fact, that there was a sort of desire to throw Harry under the bus simply to make these things go away.
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