The Disappearing of Rose Hanbury
A timeline of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s media coverage shows reports of an alleged affair with Prince William have quietly disappeared.
The British royal family has dominated headlines in 2024, the biggest story, of course, being weeks of conspiracy-theory-laden social-media rumors about the absence of Kate Middleton or Catherine, the Princess of Wales from public life amid a health crisis. If you were paying attention to the twists and turns of this multi-month saga, you may have encountered the name Rose Hanbury or, as she is properly known, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley (pronounced CHUM-lee). Since 2019, rumors have circulated on gossip blogs and royal social-media spaces of a supposed affair between the marchioness and Prince William despite lawyers for both parties strongly denying that there’s any truth to them. The controversy over Catherine’s whereabouts earlier this year exported the speculations across the pond and into mainstream news after Stephen Colbert joked about the alleged affair between William and Rose, whom Colbert referred to as “the Marching Band of Chicanery” and “the Marcus Mumford of Chumbawamba” during a March 12 Late Show monologue. The joke led to Rose breaking her five-year silence with her first public statement ever denying the rumors, issued though her lawyers, as well as a legal warning sent to CBS about Colbert’s “royal mistress” remarks.
As far as royal scandals go, the Rose-William story barely registers on a list that includes the far more sordid (and substantiated) stories of the previous generation of Windsors, such as Squidgygate, the now-King Charles’s infamous tampon comments, and the whole Fergie toe-sucking thing. But if you start to dig a little more into the history of these recent royal-affair rumors — if you go looking for information about the Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s connections to the House of Windsor — you quickly encounter a problem. Years of U.K. media coverage about Rose have now vanished. And, to be clear, we’re not talking about just allegations of “aristocratic extramarital romance” but also allusions to an apparent tension betweenfriends Rose and Catherine. Foundational stories about Rose and the future king and queen now lead to unavailable pages or redirect to the host website’s homepage. Other stories remain online but were updated post-publication to remove details about the “feud” or other unspecified “rumors” about Rose, William, and Catherine, as seen via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine or archive.today. Vulture is unable to share links to the deleted stories for legal reasons. However, the mysterious individuals in charge of removing stories didn’t do a great job cleaning up after themselves. Broken links to these vanished stories still exist in each publication’s royal coverage from this timeframe and, in many cases, on these outlets’ official social-media accounts.
In total, this investigation found 21 deleted stories and six stories that were edited post-publication to remove information, published from 2019 to 2024. All of the media outlets in question are based in the U.K.: Tatler, the Daily Mail/MailOnline/Mail on Sunday, the Evening Standard, the Mirror, the Sun, the Daily Express, the Guardian. Vulture sent several requests for comments to these outlets over a period of three months; the Guardian was the only news company to respond.
So where did they go? The gossipmongers’ assumption has always been that the Palace is pulling strings behind the scenes, leaning on media outlets to suppress news of or speculation about the alleged affair in order to protect the future king. (There have even been — wholly unsubstantiated, for the record — rumors on social media about a “media blackout” or “super injunction” on stories about William and Rose.) According to a Daily Beast story from April 2019, royal lawyers sent strongly worded letters to at least one media outlet warning them off reporting on the affair rumors, not just because they were “false and highly damaging,” but because they apparently violated Article 8 of the European Convention to Human Rights, they claimed. But there have been no reports of the Palace asking media organizations to remove stories or parts of stories, and certainly no statements from the U.K. media outlets in question — or notices to readers — explaining why they’ve chosen to delete paragraphs and even entire posts. Legal representatives for both the royal family and the Marchioness of Cholmondeley strongly denied all rumors of an alleged affair between William and Rose but declined to provide any specific on-the-record statements about the deletion of or removal of information from the stories referenced above.
And so, amid the rumors, Rose’s public profile has continued to rise. Her friendship with Catherine has been the subject of many glowing stories over the past two years, and, more and more, Rose has been the standalone subject of U.K. media articles. Her presence at events, her clothing, the fact that she sent a “fan” a thank-you note in response to a birthday card has all, for some reason, been deemed newsworthy. Then there are the endless Who Is Rose Hanbury? articles.
To answer questions about the Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s current press coverage and the many stories that have disappeared, you need to start from the beginning: her days as an “eye-wateringly sexy” model and an “absolute heartbreaker” of an ingénue socialite. Here’s how the media has covered Rose over the years — in many ways, that’s more interesting and illuminating than the rumors themselves.
Part One: Society Sweetheart and Lady of the Manor
May 17, 2002: Sarah Rose Hanbury’s socialite status is established in what appears to be the first media story to drop her name: An Evening Standard article titled “Meet London’s New Party People.” The piece identifies Rose and her elder sister, Marina, as “impossibly gorgeous” “It” girls, but the newspaper incorrectly identifies them both as teenagers (at the time of publication, Rose is 18 and Marina is 20).
2002–3: Rose becomes a fixture on London’s upper-class party scene and regularly appears in Getty photo-agency and Shutterstock photos taken at exclusive events. At some point during this period, Rose signs with the prestigious modeling agency Storm Management and begins to book work as a professional model. (Rose reportedly didn’t start modeling until she was 23, but Storm is listed as her representation when her image appears in the Evening Standard’s fashion column on March 27, 2003.)
2004–5: Rose is regularly mentioned in U.K. society columns and media coverage of high-profile parties and events. She’s often photographed with famous and/or well-connected individuals (here she is partying with her friend Laura Parker Bowles, daughter of the future Queen Camilla, in an Evening Standard social column published June 24, 2004). At some point during one of these summers, Rose and her sister, Marina — wearing matching pink bikinis — pose for a photo with U.K. prime minister Tony Blair at Villa Cetinale in Tuscany, Italy. (Although the image has been identified by media outlets as having been taken in 2005, it appears to have originated on a U.K. politics blog in 2006 in a post that states it was taken in 2004.)
August 16, 2006: The Daily Mail reports that 22-year-old Rose is “stepping out” with David Rocksavage, the Seventh Marquess of Cholmondeley, 46. The filmmaker, who holds the ceremonial position of Lord Great Chamberlain, is described as a “flamboyant socialite” and “one of England’s most eligible bachelors.” According to the tabloid, after years of unattached living, the marquess wants to get married and “produce an heir to inherit his £60 million fortune.”
July 10, 2008: Society-gossip writer Taki Theodoracopulos (a friend of the Hanbury family who regularly references Rose and Marina in his Spectator column) hints to the Daily Mail that the model might soon become a marchioness. “Why shouldn’t they marry? He’s a nice guy and wants a wife,” he is quoted as saying. “Plus, she likes him, and not just because he is a marquess.”
June 2009: On June 22, the Telegraph reports that David, now 48, is engaged to Rose, now 25. (The paper’s society gossip column reports “Rose is delighted that she has succeeded where so many women have failed.”) The next day, Rose’s mother, Emma Hanbury, tells the Daily Mail that her daughter is pregnant with twins and impending parenthood spurred the couple to tie the knot. David and Rose marry in a small civil ceremony at Chelsea Town Hall on June 24. Several stories reporting the pregnancy and marriage note that morning sickness forced Rose to give up her job as a political assistant to Michael Gove, then the shadow secretary of state for Children, Schools and Families.
October 2009: The Daily Mail’s Richard Kay reports on October 7 that Rose has been in the hospital since late September due to pregnancy-related complications. Rose’s sister, Marina, tells Kay that her sister is “perfectly fine” and the babies will likely be born earlier than expected. One week later, on October 14, Kay reports that Rose gave birth to twin boys on October 12. This is a Big Deal, because David now has an heir (Alexander Hugh George Cholmondeley, Earl of Rocksavage) and a spare (Lord Oliver Timothy George Cholmondeley) for his 194-year-old title. The family takes up residence in Houghton Hall, the Cholmondeley estate in Norfolk.
November 8, 2009: In a story that epitomizes “modern aristocrat problems,” the Sunday Telegraph reports that Rose and David used an unusual method to choose which of their twin sons would succeed his father as the next Marquess of Cholmondeley. Since the children made their entrance into the world via Cesarean section, there was no way of identifying which boy was the firstborn, so according to the Sunday Telegraph, the proud parents decided that the twin who weighed the most at birth would be the heir. The story’s title? “It pays to be chubby for Cholmondeley.”
February 26, 2010: The Evening Standard publishes a gossipy, more-than-somewhat snarky profile of Rose and Marina that emphasizes the fact that both sisters are romantically linked to titled men 20-plus years their senior. (At the time, Marina, 27, was dating her future husband, Edward “Ned” Lambton, the Earl of Durham, 48.) “The girls certainly seem to have found happiness, along with all the other trappings that a match with a moneyed aristocrat brings,” the paper reports, describing the Hanbury sisters’ social trajectory as one “that would gladden Jane Austen’s heart” and congratulating Rose for marrying “the greatest catch in the land.” An unnamed friend describes the marchioness as “incredibly nice … gentle and always concerned about people with problems and terribly sweet.”
2012: Rose is regularly photographed at exclusive, swanky events across the U.K. On several occasions, her appearances at these high-profile shindigs appear in the U.K. society Bible, Tatler magazine.
April 22, 2013: The Cholmondeleys are featured in a Vanity Fair story and accompanying photo essay about Houghton Hall and an art exhibition it will be hosting from May to November.
May 2013: Tatler publishes a list of the “best society breasts,” in which Rose is included. Her breasts are dubbed “stately.”
September 12, 2014: To mark William and Catherine’s planned full-time move to their country home in Norfolk, Anmer Hall, following the birth of their second child, the Daily Mail publishes a story with the phrase “Turnip Toffs,” used to describe the other families in their new posh neighborhood, which includes Houghton Hall, located a mere five miles away from the royal residence. Why turnips? Because that area of the U.K. is known for its fertile vegetable-growing fields. And “toff” is a somewhat insulting British slang word for a rich, upper-class person.
April 2016: Rose is featured in an issue of W magazine titled “10 Haute Bohemians Who Live Beautifully—And Make It Look Easy.” A photograph of Rose pregnant with her daughter Iris (technically Lady Iris Marina Aline Cholmondeley, who was born March 8) runs alongside a short blurb. “I am not someone who likes to be held down by conventions,” she says. “I’m far happier walking around the house in a floaty Victorian nightgown or a caftan and bare feet than in a cocktail dress and high heels.”
June 22, 2016: William and Catherine attend a black-tie fundraiser at Houghton Hall to raise funds for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, a cause both Rose and Catherine support as patrons. The two women are seen kissing each other’s cheeks in greeting and chatting together. Many media outlets (in the U.S. and the U.K.) cover the fundraiser.
June 23, 2016: The day after the event, the Daily Mail publishes a piece pitting the two women against each other: “Who’s Queen Bee of the Turnip Toffs? They’re rural Norfolk neighbours who’ve got SO much in common. But, sorry Kate, the superglam Marchioness of Cholmondeley lives in even grander style.” The story examines the many similarities in the lives of each woman and appears to be the first piece of media to hint at a possible competition/rivalry between Catherine and Rose, with the author making a point of noting that the marchioness has a “bombshell” figure with “generous cleavage that rather puts athletic-looking Kate in the shade.”
July 10, 2017: The Daily Mail reports that David and Rose’s daughter, Iris, was christened on July 8 in a ceremony that named supermodel Kate Moss — a longtime friend of the marchioness from her modeling days — as the baby’s godmother.
July 12, 2017: The Cholmondeleys attend an official state banquet at Buckingham Palace held in honor of Spain’s King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia. Rose is seated next to Prince Harry. The Mirror identifies her as Catherine’s “glamorous friend” and “pal,” while Hello! magazine describes her as a “close friend.”
May 14, 2018: Rose stars in a video for the U.K. fashion brand Mulberry filmed at Houghton House in honor of a Damien Hirst exhibit the estate is hosting.
February 2019: Rose talks about her life at Houghton Hall in what appears to be the only interview she’s ever done, a Q&A for hyperspecific magazine The English Home (the current publication date on the outlet’s website is listed as March 17, 2024 — a tweet from the English Home account on January 11, 2019, and the digital version of the February 2019 issue confirm the original time of publication). “I don’t know how many rooms we have in total,” she says, adding, “It took me a while to adjust and feel at home.“
Part Two: Rumo(u)rs and Rural Rivals
March 15, 2019: In his society-gossip column “Eden Confidential,” Daily Mail reporter Richard Eden describes Rose as Catherine’s “rural rival” and claims that the two are battling to be “queen bee” of the “Turnip Toffs.” He quotes an unnamed member of the “aristocratic set in East Anglia” as saying, “On the face of it, it’s bizarre, but Kate seems to see Rose as a rival.”
This story has since been deleted.
March 22, 2019: The Sun’s Dan Wootton reports that the “terrible falling-out” between Catherine and Rose (who is described as one of the future queen’s “long-term best friends”) has “stunned” royal insiders and “rocked” the “Turnip Toff” set. “They used to be close but that is not the case any more,” Wootton quotes a “source” as saying. “William wants to play peacemaker so the two couples can remain friends, given they live so close to each other and share many mutual friends. But Kate has been clear that she doesn’t want to see them any more and wants William to phase them out, despite their social status.” (The piece notes that Kensington Palace declined to comment.)
This story has since been deleted.
March 23, 2019: The Sun and Mail on Sunday publish stories that not only report on the alleged tension between Catherine and Rose, but dig into the many similarities between the two women. “They should be really close but things are tense between them,” a “source” tells the Sun. “No one understands quite how things have come to this.” Mail on Sunday refers to Rose as a “beguiling beauty” and is not subtle in its hints that William might have once had a thing for the ex-model, claiming that she was “at one stage named as a potential contender for Prince William’s affections.” The piece notes that “when [Rose and William] first met — and whether they ever became close prior to [Will and Kate’s] move to Norfolk — remains unclear.” It ends on an ominous note: “If Kate is seeking to extricate Rose, as it is rumoured, it could prove a rather bothersome — and humiliating — business for everyone concerned. The reported row must indeed have been serious.”
Both stories have since been deleted.
March 24, 2019: Mail reporters go to the home of Rose’s parents, Tim and Emma Hanbury, to investigate. “Asked whether her daughter had discussed [Prince William and Catherine], Mrs Hanbury glanced at her husband before replying: ‘Nothing to say about it.’ Mr Hanbury then intervened, saying: ‘Got no comment. There is no comment.’” These same reporters try to talk to the Cholmondeleys, but are told by one of their staffers via intercom that the couple are unavailable. “When asked if the couple knew of the allegations reported in The Sun, the employee said: ‘We are fully aware,’” it reads. (Kensington Palace declined to comment for the story, and the Cholmondeleys were unavailable for comment, according to the Mail on Sunday.)
This story has since been deleted.
March 24, 2019: Daily Mail columnist Richard Kay attempts to set the record straight in a way that only raises more questions about what exactly is going on in Norfolk. “I am told the rumours of a falling out between these two attractive young women are false. I can also reveal both sides have considered legal action but, because none of the reports have been able to offer any evidence about what the so-called dispute is about, they have chosen to ignore it,” he writes. Considering legal action …? Over gossip that the two women are fighting …? Kay writes that the gossip “started doing the rounds at smart dinner parties last year” and says that it has “malevolent undertones” and that the whispers were starting to “damage” Catherine. Kay also claims that William and Catherine are not close friends with the Cholmondeleys and have only been to each other’s homes three times, quoting a “source close to Rose” as saying, “It isn’t even remotely a bosom-close friendship.”
March 25, 2019: The “rural rival” story gets picked up by royal reporters at two U.S.-based outlets: Vanity Fair and the Daily Beast. Both reporters point out the strange way the friendship breakup is being covered by the U.K. media. The Daily Beast titles its story “Kate Middleton’s Alleged Feud With Former Model Is The Weirdest Royal Story of the Year” and notes how strange it is that Catherine and Rose were allegedly contemplating legal action over a story about their feud, when Catherine seemed to be perfectly fine with all of the stories about her alleged rivalry with Meghan Markle, a.k.a the Duchess of Sussex. Vanity Fair wonders why there’s so much coverage when nobody can even confirm why Catherine and Rose are fighting.
March 26, 2019: The Express, an outlet that until now has primarily covered the Sun and the Daily Mail’s coverage, does some reporting of its own and gets a Kensington Palace spokesperson on the record denying the allegations of a “falling-out.” Weirdly, another Express story about the Catherine-and-Rose rumors published on this day by the same author was eventually removed from the internet (“Kate Middleton FEUD: Everything you need to know about model Rose Hanbury - and THAT ‘row’”).
In its society section, the Evening Standard publishes an explainer about the Marchioness of Cholmondeley and the alleged ongoing situation between her and Catherine. The (honestly pretty innocuous) piece lays out the information that’s been reported by the tabloids and notes that the two women are considering taking legal action.
The second Express story and Evening Standard story have since been deleted.
March 26–27, 2019: Gossip websites Lainey Gossip and Celebitchy publish pieces speculating that the British media coverage is actually hinting at an affair. Both stories cite a quickly deleted March 26 tweet from The Times restaurant critic Giles Coren claiming that “everyone” knows about a liaison between the prince and the marchioness. (In a column published January 3, 2022, Coren claims that he was drunk and “joking” when he tweeted.)
This tweet is often cited as the Patient Zero of the affair rumors, most notably by representatives for the people affected by them. When approached for comment, Harbottle & Lewis, lawyers for the royal family, referred Vulture to Coren’s tweet and the quote from his column refuting it, stating rumors of an affair are “false and of an entirely scurrilous and malicious origin” with “no basis in fact.” “We have made it clear when asked that we do not see how the re-publication of baseless and harmful gossip amounts to responsible journalism,” a representative stated.
March 27, 2019: The Express publishes a gossipy piece about more women Catherine has allegedly removed from her and William’s circle titled “Kate Middleton ‘phased out’ Rose Hanbury: Meet the other women who angered the Duchess.” It’s a pretty small list! Only two people are named: Isabella Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe and Carly Massy-Birch, who each, by strange coincidence, were at one point romantically linked to William in the press.
This story has since been deleted.
March 28, 2019: Tatler republishes images of Rose modeling for the magazine that were taken in 2003.
March 28, 2019: The weekly U.K.-centric gossip newsletter Popbitch gets explicit about the whispers: “It can sometimes feel as if you need a PhD in cryptography to make sense of the tabloid reports about the Royals. If you’ve been following the latest Kate Middleton hoo-hah but have been at a loss to understand what a ‘rural rivalry’ is, it’s Fleet Street’s way of hinting at the long-standing society rumor that Prince William has been caught slinging it up their family friend, Rose Hanbury.” (A screenshot of the item is posted on Mumsnet on March 29, 2019, and later reporting by the Daily Beast shows that the image accurately reflects the text.)
March 30, 2019: The Daily Beast dives back into the news coverage with “Kate Middleton, Royal Enigma, Faces Her First Scandal.” Royal correspondent Tom Sykes writes that “William is believed to have enjoyed a dalliance with Rose while he and Kate were on a break” before they were married. He doesn’t come right out and say that the current media furor could be about a more recent fling, but points out that the lack of information about the feud gives “the sense that there was more to this story than the media were prepared to let on.”
March 30, 2019: The Express publishes a gossipy look at the “Turnip Toffs” and how the feud has affected the tight-knit circle of aristocrats. Reporter James Arthur claims that the women have been “close for more than a decade” and “seemed to be set for a lifelong friendship” before Catherine “banished” Rose from their friend group “for reasons that have yet to become apparent.” William and Catherine may have “put some very well-bred noses out of joint” when they moved to the area and reportedly assumed they would lead the social scene. An unnamed Norfolk source tells the Express that when the grouse-shooting season begins in August, “Rose might not want to stand next to [Catherine]. She’s an excellent shot.”
April 2, 2019: The International Business Times (a U.S.-based outlet) publishes “Princes William, Harry’s ‘Frosty’ Relationship Due To Heir’s Infidelity, Not Meghan Markle,” primarily a rewrite of a viral Twitter thread by writer Nicole Cliffe that was posted March 30. (In a Substack post published April 25, Cliffe clarifies she is not a “journalist, reporter, royal insider, or source” and should not be cited as such. “This is gossip. I do not know these things,” she writes. She states that she stands by her thread and her theory that the current bad press about Meghan is a “smokescreen” to cover William’s alleged affair and his subsequent falling-out with his brother.)
The Express publishes and later deletes a story that, while not exactly critical of Catherine, is a lot more pointed than most of the coverage about her: “‘Everything has changed’ for Kate Middleton after Rose Hanbury ‘feud’ and Meghan wedding.” Referencing the recent coverage of Catherine’s desire to oust Rose from her and William’s friend group,the piece quotes writer Daniela Elser as saying, “This depiction of Kate is one of a woman who is crafty and who cruelly amputates friends when she decides they are persona no grata. That image is galaxies apart from the carefully honed construct of bland perfection we have been fed for years.”
Here’s the thing: the Express story is built from quotes from an editorial Elser wrote for news.com.au. That piece is still online.
The Express story has since been deleted.
April 4, 2019: American magazine In Touch Weekly publishes a “World Exclusive” cover story alleging William cheated on Catherine with Rose. It’s unclear whether the story was ever online. Lainey Gossip and Celebitchy were the first to quote from it, and the article is mentioned by all outlets covering the “scandal” from this date onward. The piece claims that Catherine discovered that William was cheating on her in 2018 while she was pregnant with their third child. That knowledge is described as the future queen’s “worst nightmare.” According to the magazine, when Catherine first confronted her husband about the rumors, he “laughed it off.”
April 8, 2019: Citing a “Buckingham Palace source,” RadarOnline reports that Catherine has “banished” Rose because she’s “extremely jealous” of the former model. “She’s been told William has carried a steaming torch for Rose for years — and he even confided to pals she was the ‘one that got away’,” the report reads. The insider alleges that Rose’s “aristocratic pedigree” makes her “an ideal match” for William (likely a subtle dig at Catherine’s middle-class origins).
April 9, 2019: The Daily Beast publishes one of the most important source materials in the multiyear Rose Hanbury Alleged Affair Saga. Sykes claims that “at least one British publication has been served with legal warnings after publishing details of the rumors [about William and Rose].” He reports that the legal letters assert that publishing details of the alleged affair would not only be “false and highly damaging,” it would constitute “a breach of [William’s] privacy pursuant to Article 8 of the European Convention to Human Rights.” Although Kensington Palace refuses to comment on the In Touch Weekly cover story, “courtiers” tell Sykes that all reports of an affair are “totally wrong and false.”
April 26, 2019: The Sun publishes “FRENEMIES: How old is Rose Hanbury and how is she linked to Prince William and Kate Middleton?” The piece contains a few sentences about Rose’s background (along with her exact date of birth), then rehashes previous reporting from March about William’s attempts to play peacemaker amid tension between Rose and Catherine.
This story has since been deleted.
April 28, 2019: The Express posts a story about how Rose’s grandmother was one of Queen Elizabeth II’s bridesmaids in 1947. The story originally contains a few paragraphs about the alleged feud between Rose and Catherine, but those lines are quietly removed from the story at some point in time.
The updated version of the story can be found here.
June 3–5, 2019: On June 3, U.S. president Donald Trump attends a state banquet at Buckingham Palace as part of an official visit to the U.K. Rose accompanies David in his capacity as the Lord Great Chamberlain (he’s part of the official procession, alongside Trump administration officials and members of the royal family).The Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s presence garners a fair amount of media attention over the next few days, and all of the stories inevitably resurrect the rumors of the alleged “falling-out” between her and Catherine. Tatler labels Rose a “controversial guest” in its coverage and notes that “rumours of a rift [between Rose and Catherine] spread like wildfire across the media earlier this year.” The piece makes a point of mentioning that the two women were not seated near each other, hinting it might be “to limit photographic opportunities to capture the pair that would be additional fuel for the rumours and spark speculation.”
The Daily Mail publishes a standalone story about Rose’s attendance at the “awkward” state banquet, mentioning all of the previous reporting on the alleged tension between her and Catherine. The Sun follows suit, publishing two stories about the Cholmondeleys’ presence at the official event, describing Rose as Kate’s “rival” and “frenemy.”
The Daily Mail story and Sun stories have since been deleted.
June 8–11, 2019: Photographs from the Trump state banquet reveal that Rose wasn’t wearing her wedding ring at the event, and the U.K. tabloids are on it. First, Mail on Sunday publishes a piece about Rose’s apparently sad life over the past few months in the wake of the “rural rival” showdown. The story notes Rose’s missing ring (and in the print edition, includes a picture of the ring on her hand at another event), speculating that she is suffering “heartache.” She is described as looking “somewhat glum” at the event, which the piece notes is the first time Catherine and the marchioness have been in the same place since reports of their feud hit the papers. The next day, the Sun picks up on Rose’s lack of wedding ring at the Trump state banquet and runs its own story full of speculation about the state of her and David’s marriage and why she’s been “phased out” of the royal couple’s social circle. In the piece, an unnamed source laments the tension between the two women, noting, “Over the years, Rose and Kate’s lives have been entwined in many ways.” On June 11, the Express chimes in with its own story, headlined “Royal scandal: Shock as Kate Middleton’s ex-best friend Rose spotted without wedding ring.” This latest piece states that Rose’s empty ring finger at the black-tie event has been “prompting questions over her marriage.” In addition, citing “those in the know,” the story claims that William has been trying to “patch things up” between Kate and Rose, but his wife refuses to let it go.
All three stories have since been deleted.
June 13, 2019: The Sun catapults back into the gossip with a dishy story headlined “NO BED OF ROSES: Rose Hanbury’s ‘world rocking’ after ‘momentous’ fall out with Kate Middleton and Prince William.” Following the tone of the Mail on Sunday story, the paper reports that Rose’s life has taken a turn for the worse. According to the piece, a regular at Rose’s brother’s private members’ club said that the marchioness’s sibling “let it slip when he had been drinking that Rose is aware of what people are saying about her and William. And it seems Rose’s marriage has less romance these days.” Another anonymous source, “one of Rose’s friends,” tells the paper that the marchioness is struggling to deal with everything. “These are very, very trying times for Rose and she has not found it easy knowing that she is the subject of gossip simply because she happened to form a good friendship with [William and Kate].” The friend adds the rumor “seems to have started because [Rose] had one or two suppers with William in Norfolk when Kate was away.” The unnamed source says that the two weren’t meeting behind Catherine’s back. “Kate was grateful that a good friend and neighbour like Rose was there to entertain William — as a platonic friend.” A day or so after the piece was published, as Celebitchy reported on June 17, the anecdote about the suppers was removed.
This story has since been deleted.
June 15, 2019: Mail on Sunday publishes an interesting story with new gossipy details about the Cholmondeleys. The paper reports that Rose’s husband David is in Paris with his “close friend” François-Marie Banier. A French source tells Mail on Sunday that the men “are a professional couple and best male friends too,” adding that they’ve been “buying property together” and “are always there for each other in times of trouble.” The report also claims that royal advisers are “stepping in” to help Rose and David with “handling the media” and are telling them “to say nothing.” “’It has caused [Rose] great distress to have suddenly found herself the talking point of everyone in the area,” a source tells the paper. “She is very aware about what is being said and she has tried to put a brave face on it.’”
This story has since been deleted.
Late June 2019: Tatler releases its annual “Social Power Index,” a list of the ten most powerful people/couples in U.K. society, and David and Rose secure the last spot on the ranking. In its description of the Cholmondeleys, the magazine alludes to the rumors about Catherine and the marchioness, noting, “While certain neighbours don’t swing by anymore, Houghton [Hall] still remains a hot ticket – be it for summer suppers on the lawn or shooting weekends.”
The Sun and the Express each publish stories referencing the alleged tension between Kate and Rose. The headline of the Sun’s item is a pretty good summary of its contents: “NOT ALL ROSES: Royal aides advise Kate Middleton’s ‘rural rival’ Rose Hanbury to ‘keep quiet’ following ‘momentous’ fallout with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges.” The Express story is about the tiara Rose wore to the Trump state banquet, but it originally included a few sentences about the end of Kate’s friendship with the marchioness. The piece appears to have been edited to remove all references to the feud allegations on July 17, 2019.
The edited Express story can be found here. The Sun story has since been deleted.
Part Three: Royal Image Rehabilitation
January 5, 2020: Rose and David are seen attending a service at St. Mary Magdalene Church on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk alongside Catherine, Prince William, and the queen. The Cholmondeleys aren’t the only Turnip Toffs accompanying the royals to church, but they’re the only ones named in the stories that the Daily Mail and the Mirror write about the event on the day it occurs. Both pieces describe Rose as Prince William and Catherine’s “friend.” The Sun, however, has the headline “ROYAL RIVAL: Kate Middleton and Prince William’s former friend Rose Hanbury attends same service as royal couple despite ‘fall-out’.”
The Sun story has since been deleted.
January 6, 2020: MailOnline publishes a story about Catherine and Rose being seen together at church. The piece is first titled “Is Rose Hanbury back in the royal fold? Kate Middleton’s friend is seen with her for first time since rumours of a rift … but will she join guests at Duchess’s 38th birthday this week?” At some point after it is published, the headline is updated to “Kate Middleton’s friend Rose Hanbury is seen with her the first time in more than three years — and is due to be at Duchess’s 38th birthday party this week.” The story’s text also undergoes some serious changes. As originally published, it labels Rose as Kate’s “rural rival” and mentions 2019’s alleged “falling out” and the “feud” between the two women. The first version of the piece includes a line about Prince William attempting to play “peacemaker” and notes that the Cholmondeleys appear to be “back in the good graces of the royal couple.” Text from Richard Kay’s March 24, 2019, column is republished at the bottom of the first version of the story. The story that is live now on the Daily Mail website has no mention of any disagreement between Rose, David, Catherine, and Prince William. The marchioness is labeled an “old friend” and a “regular among royal circles,” and Kay’s excerpt is gone.
The updated version of the story can be found here.
January 8, 2020: Three days after publishing a story about the alleged tension between Rose and Catherine, the Sun posts a profile of the princess’s “inner circle,” a group the paper dubs “Catherine’s crew.” The eight people on the list are given only a few sentences each, and nothing in Rose’s description indicates that she and Catherine are on anything but the best of terms.
May 25, 2020: Tatler magazine posts its July-August cover story — an in-depth profile of the then-Duchess of Cambridge titled “Catherine the Great” — on its website. It’s one of the most detailed pieces that’s ever been written about the future queen’s life, family, and place in the monarchy. It’s also extremely juicy and full of quotes from seemingly well-connected unnamed sources. The profile contains only one sentence about Rose, but it’s a good one. Longtime royal reporter Anna Pasternak writes that there was “an alleged falling-out” between the Cholmondeleys and the royal couple last year “over Rose’s apparent closeness to William.”
Two days after the profile goes live, Kensington Palace issues a rare statement attacking the magazine. The Palace says the story contains “a swathe of inaccuracies and false misrepresentations” and claims that Tatler did not approach the institution for comment prior to publication. A spokesperson for the magazine refutes the Palace, saying, “The fact they are denying they ever knew is categorically false.” Days later, lawyers representing the royal family make a formal complaint about the story and demand that Tatler remove the piece from the internet. Months pass without any updates, and then on September 19, Mail on Sunday reports that the magazine “caved” to the Palace’s demands and removed “almost a quarter” of the profile from its website. The sentence about Rose’s “closeness” to Prince William was one of many cut.
In a statement to Vulture, Pasternak said, “I have absolutely no idea why those particular quotes were removed from Tatler at the behest of the [royal family] as they seemed innocuous to me and the ‘Turnip Toff’ phrase had been well used elsewhere.”
“The hypersensitivity over anything to do with Rose Hanbury seems to strengthen the sense of no smoke without fire,” she continued. “When the then Duke and Duchess of Cambridge reacted to the Tatler piece with sudden and alarming gossamer sensitivity, they gave far more fire to the article — which I never understood.”
The updated version of the story can be found here.
August 15, 2020: Daily Beast’s Sykes drops an anecdote about the rumors of an affair between William and Rose in a piece about what it’s like to be a royal reporter. He says that he first found out about the “shocking” alleged liaison at “a dinner party attended by one of [his] top sources, the daughter of an earl.”
December 31, 2020: The Daily Mail publishes a story about “Kate’s friend” Rose’s Instagram activities — specifically, about her asking the followers of the official Houghton Hall account she runs if they can recommend places to buy bedroom rugs “that aren’t too expensive.” The original story includes a line about how Rose was dubbed “rural rival,” but adds that the two women “appeared to have patched things up last January when they both attended a service at the St. Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham.” At some point after it was posted, however, the reference to the “feud” was removed from the story.
The updated version of the story can be found here.
June 12, 2021: Us Weekly publishes an exclusive story titled “How Prince William and Duchess Kate Bounced Back After ‘Hurtful’ Rumors He Had an Affair.” A “Kate family friend” tells the outlet that Catherine “finds the rumors hurtful, obviously, and hates the thought that one day her children will be able to read about them online.” The ordeal, the source says, “forced [Catherine] and William to sit back and examine their relationship, which they realized they should have been doing more often.” Another “insider” describes the rumors as a “hiccup” and claims the couple are still strong: “Regardless of their ups and downs, they love each other dearly and their kids are the most important thing in their lives.” The story identifies Rose as the alleged other woman, but provides no details other than her name and title.
March 29, 2022: As part of its coverage of Prince Philip’s memorial service, MailOnline publishes a story about the outfit Rose wore to the ceremony at Westminster Abbey.
July 28, 2022: Celebrity gossip Instagram account DeuxMoi publishes a blind item about a member of the royal family’s sex life. “This is so salacious I’m almost too shook to share with you (but will anyway),” the anonymous poster writes in the submission. “This British royal’s extramarital affair is an open secret in London and amongst the English artisto set, and is the talk of every party and newsdesk. At a recent media party, I was told the real reason for the affair was the royal’s love of pegging, which his wife is far too old fashioned to engage in. The wife doesn’t mind her and in fact prefers her husband getting his sexual needs met elsewhere, as long as things don’t become emotional, which was the case with the last woman.”
The DeuxMoi post doesn’t just reignite the old rumors about William and Rose (which, until this point, are mostly only known to longtime royal family watchers) — it catapults the alleged infidelity narrative into wider mainstream consciousness. As old stories and gossip threads from 2019 are shared, the internet assumes that William is the subject of the blind item, and #princeofpegging is born. The hashtag quickly starts trending on Twitter and TikTok, along with #princewilliamaffair.
Although Kensington Palace obviously doesn’t comment, in March 2024, a former Ryanair employee reveals that representatives for the royal family were definitely aware of #princeofpegging. The Palace reportedly demanded that the airline take down one of the brand’s tweets that mentioned the prince and alluded to the hashtag.
December 3, 2022: In a story with the headline “The ‘erotic, exotic, and eccentric’ teenage years of Rose Hanbury detailed in a new book,” Mail on Sunday takes a look at Rare Birds, True Style, by Violet Naylor-Leyland. The paper quotes from a section of the book in which Rose and her sister Marina describe the raucous parties thrown by their parents at their childhood home in Devon.
April 12, 2023: In a Daily Beast piece, “What Feud? Rose Hanbury Will Be at King Charles’ Coronation, Friends Say,” Sykes revisits the 2019 speculation about Rose, Catherine, and William in the context of the upcoming historic event. A “friend of the family” tells Sykes, “There has never been any enmity between Kate and Rose. The rumors were all a load of rubbish. The family are ancient allies of the Crown and they will be there.” The piece also refers to the whispers of an alleged affair as “baseless rumors.”
May 6, 2023: On the day of King Charles III’s coronation, MailOnline writes that Rose appeared to “pay homage” to Catherine with the ensemble she wore to the ceremony. The piece notes the similarities between the black-and-white dress the marchioness wore to the ceremony and an outfit the princess wore during a walkabout the previous day — and the fact that both women wore the same type of shoes (Bow Tie Pump 105 heels by Aquazzura). This very important footwear news is also reported by the Express.
Media coverage of the coronation notes that the Cholmondeleys’ younger son, Oliver, is one of the King’s pages of honour, as is future monarch Prince George. Oliver’s presence at the service (and on the balcony of Buckingham Palace following the ceremony) sparks renewed social-media discourse about the alleged affair between William and Rose. In addition to the rumor of extramarital infidelity, there has long been wholly unsubstantiated speculation that William might be the father of one of Rose’s children. Oliver’s ceremonial position in the coronation leads some on social media to speculate that he might be the child in question. (The fact that Oliver is a twin seems to have slipped the minds of many.)
May 12, 2023: The Financial Times publishes a photo-laden profile of the Cholmondeleys’ palatial, historic home, Houghton Hall. Although the couple are both quoted in the piece, most of the included remarks are from the marquess.
August 14–16, 2023: Catherine, Rose, and some unnamed friends attend an “upper-class 24-hour musical festival” on the grounds of Houghton Hall on August 12, according to reports published by the Daily Mail (August 14) and the Evening Standard (August 16). The Daily Mail claims that the group gathered at the Cholmondeleys’ house for a dinner party, but, following the meal, Rose suggested they all go to the festival. “[Catherine] was nervous about the idea, but, after much discussion with her protection officers, she went with lots of security,” a source told Daily Mail reporter Richard Eden, who inserts his own commentary later in the piece, claiming that the “lively night out” can be considered “just the latest example of the warm friendship between the future king and queen and the Cholmondeleys.” The Evening Standard reports that Rose, Catherine, and friends visited the on-site restaurant, where the princess “was in high spirits, ordering spicy margaritas, eating affogato, and speaking affably with the other members of her party.” They reportedly left a £700 tip and brought their own large bottle of rosé. The Daily Mail and Evening Standard stories are picked up by other media outlets, most especially the U.K. tabloids, and dozens of pieces about Catherine, Rose, and the rave soon hit the internet.
August 18, 2023: The Sun publishes a glowing profile of Catherine and Rose’s relationship, with the headline “PALACE PALS: How Kate Middleton’s friendship with society stunner Rose Hanbury survived THOSE rift rumours & their heartbreaking bond.” Despite the mention of the alleged conflict between the women in the piece’s title, the story glosses over the rumor that the paper helped start.
November 28, 2023: The Mirror publishes a story about new alleged affair details brought to light in reporter Omid Scobie’s recently published book on the royal family, Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival. “According to the book, reports alleged that Rose had ‘one or two suppers with William in Norfolk while Kate was away’ — but purely as ‘platonic friends,’” the article reads. The piece adds that Prince William and Rose were not meeting behind Catherine’s back and, in fact, she was “grateful that a good friend and neighbor like Rose was there to entertain William.” The rest of the story relates the future king’s reaction to the rumors, as told in Endgame. It’s worth noting that the information in the Mirror’s story — specifically, the details about platonic dinners — echoes reporting from the Sun’s deleted story published June 13, 2019.
This story has since been deleted.
November 30, 2023: Scobie is interviewed by ET about what he learned about the alleged affair while writing his book. Scobie says that he doesn’t believe there was anything going on between the future king and the marchioness and that he was “very careful” in the book to focus only on the accusations and fallout. “For legal reasons, there are so many things that one can’t go into, but I thought it was really important [to cover the alleged affair], even if a rumor is a rumor,” he says. Although the Palace didn’t directly address the allegations when they broke in 2019, the reporter says that it did so “indirectly” by instead offering the press stories about the Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Regardless of whether or not an affair took place, Scobie says, “The rumors themselves were going to have enough impact, negatively, on William’s reputation. We still see them trend on Twitter on a regular basis … that’s something that’s incredibly damaging, I think, for William.” The reporter claims that within the Palace, there was “a kind of willingness to throw Harry under the bus just to make these [rumors] disappear.”
Part Four: The Trouble With Conspiracy Theories
February 2, 2024: Weeks after Kensington Palace announces that Catherine has undergone planned abdominal surgery, the Sun publishes a Rose explainer. At this point, online conspiracy theories about Catherine are still very much under the radar; perhaps an editor sensed the way the wind was blowing? Regardless, despite the fact that the Sun started the rumors of a feud between Catherine and Rose, the story does not mention that there has ever been any animosity between the two women.
Early March 2024: As speculation about Catherine’s health builds online, people begin to discuss the alleged affair, and a conspiracy theory that Prince William plans to divorce her starts circulating on Twitter. Multiple media outlets begin to publish explainers on the marchioness, but not all of them mention the affair rumors. These news outlets include the News International (March 2), SheKnows (March 2), and the Independent (March 10).
March 12, 2024: Late Show host Stephen Colbert jokes about the alleged affair between Prince William and Rose — whom he mentions by name and title — and wonders if the rumored illicit relationship has something to do with the “disappearance” of the Princess of Wales.
March 13, 2024: In its roundup of American talk-show host monologues, The Guardian originally includes Rose in its description of Colbert’s joke about Prince William’s alleged affair. Hours after publication, her name is quietly removed from the story. By March 19, the paper had also removed the embedded video of Colbert’s monologue from the piece. There are no editorial notes or changes in the time of publication to indicate that the post was updated. (When asked for comment in March 2024, a spokesperson for the Guardian said, “These changes were made after internal editorial consideration and not following external outreach.”)
The updated version of the story can be found here.
March 13–16, 2024: Colbert’s joke opens the proverbial floodgates. Media outlets around the world (with, for the most part, the exception of the U.K.) publish “Who is Rose Hanbury?” stories. People on Twitter debate whether this is a play for SEO, a deliberate PR campaign facilitated by the Cholmondeleys, or, for those who believe Catherine’s “abdominal surgery” is a cover for divorce proceedings between her and William, a “soft launch” of Rose as the future king’s next wife. Among the many outlets publishing (or updating) explainers on the marchioness and the Rose–Prince William affair rumors are ET, the New York Post, Harper’s Bazaar, the Cut, Newsweek, Grazia, and the Toronto Star.
March 16, 2024: For the first time since this all began, Rose (through lawyers) addresses the alleged affair. Her legal team tells Business Insider, “The rumours are completely false.”
March 18–30, 2024: The widespread public attention on Rose sparks a controversy that nobody could have anticipated: a social-media uproar over the provenance of the Chinese artifacts on display at Houghton Hall. Images of Rose and David posing inside their historic home (for the Vanity Fair and Financial Times stories listed earlier in this timeline) went viral on Chinese social-media sites as people recognized artwork and furniture dating from the Qing dynasty in the background. People accuse David’s family of “looting” the pieces during a turbulent time in China’s history.
After 12 days of online debate and widespread press coverage, Houghton Hall releases a statement defending the Cholmondeleys. “The items of Chinese origin in the photographs to which you refer were purchased by the Walpole family, the original owners of Houghton, during the 18th Century, mid-Qing Dynasty, mostly through agents rather than in China directly,” a spokesperson writes. “The items were not looted but mostly made for export to Europe. It would be hard to find a country house collection, whether private or owned by the National Trust, that does not exhibit items acquired in or from China. This is true of most European and American collections.”
March 20, 2024: Eden includes an item about Rose in his Daily Mail society-gossip column, reporting that the Cholmondeleys attended the National Portrait Gallery’s annual gala on March 19. “Rose, who celebrated her milestone 40th birthday at the weekend, will be hoping that her friend, Princess Catherine, is soon dancing again,” Eden writes, referencing the music festival at Houghton Hall.
March 21, 2024: Rose’s lawyers tell In Touch magazine that they have sent a formal legal notice to CBS about the Late Show segment. “The rumor appears to have entered into the mainstream media recently as a result of another joke made about it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. We have written on our client’s behalf to CBS and various other reputable media organisations to confirm that the allegation is false.”
March 28, 2024: Six days after Kensington Palace releases a short video message from Catherine in which the Princess of Wales reveals her cancer diagnosis, the Cholmondeleys are also in the news. An art exhibition called “Time Horizon” will be staged at Houghton Hall from April to October. For the show, sculptor Sir Antony Gormley has installed 100 life-size nude male statues on the lawn surrounding the historic building. The Daily Mail and the Sun make sure to describe the couple as “friends” and “ex-neighbors” of the Waleses (since William, Catherine, and their children are living full-time at Adelaide Cottage on the grounds of Windsor Castle).
April 1–8, 2024: Until this point, stories about Rose and the alleged affair between her and William have been purposely vague and mostly limited to pieces published on the internet. That changes this week as the U.S. tabloids run stories online and in print. OK! Magazine publishes an explainer about Rose. Star refers to her as “the other woman” and references the alleged affair in its cover story about the king supposedly fearing for William’s future. In Touch devotes two cover stories in a row to the alleged affair,. The April 1 edition speculates that the Waleses’ marriage is over due to “new affair rumors and alleged cover-up,” and Rose herself is on the cover of the April 8 edition, in which she is described as “the woman who knows too much.” In Touch refers to her as William’s “mistress” and hints that she might be pregnant.
April 9, 2024: The Daily Mail runs a story about Rose sending a handwritten thank-you note in response to a fan who sent a card for the marchioness’s 40th birthday (March 15). “I feel very fortunate to have had forty happy years of life so far … and hope there will be many more to come,” Rose wrote to the fan, who posted the reply on Instagram.
May 12, 2024: Rose attends the final day of the Badminton Horse Trials (an event also attended by Queen Camilla and Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara Tindall), and photos of her seated in the stands are quickly posted by the Daily Mail and shared to Twitter, where users speculate about why her appearance deserves media coverage. Later in the day, pictures emerge of the queen, Rose, and cosmetics entrepreneur Charlotte Tilbury chatting together. These images launch a new media cycle, and many (non-U.K.) outlets note that the queen and the marchioness are on good terms despite the affair rumors.
May 15, 2024: The Cholmondeleys attend a Thanksgiving service for the Order of the British Empire at St. Paul’s Cathedral alongside the king and queen. Their younger son, Oliver, plays a special role in the service, once again carrying the train of the king’s robe as one of the monarch’s pages of honour. This public appearance doesn’t garner as much publicity as Rose’s day at the Horse Trials, but In Touch covers it with a story titled “Rose Hanbury Spotted for 1st Time With Husband David After Prince William Cheating Rumors.”
Rose’s two public appearances alongside members of the royal family in such a short period of time, in addition to Oliver’s official role at the service, lead people to speculate once again about the possibility of her “replacing” Catherine as William’s wife. Several people note that the hat Rose wears to the service was worn by Catherine at a previous royal event.
May 17, 2024: The Daily Mail’s Eden publishes a short piece (we’re talking seven sentences) with the somewhat obsequious title “How Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley, is blossoming in the court of Queen Camilla.”
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