Princess Kate Goes Raving with Rose
You hear that? That's the sound of the rumor mill collapsing. About time.
Hello Dear Readers!
I’ve been wanting to dig into this topic for months but hadn’t been able to find the time. Lots has been gossiped about regarding the marriage of Prince William and Catherine, the Princess of Wales. For what seems likes years (but really just since 2019) there has been so much gossip and hearsay about the couple. Is there any credence to the rumors of a supposed affair with Rose Hanbury? Borrow some scuba gear and dive deep into the bowels of Twitter and TikTok, you’ll find conspiracy theories about Prince William being the father of one of Rose’s children and his predilections for sex toys. Utter nonsense.
This Monday’s story by the Mail’s Diary Editor, Richard Eden said the Princess of Wales had dinner with the Cholmondeley couple at their home and later went to a rave on their property. To me, this indicates, among other things, the rumor was likely created by a hungry press salivating over a potential repeat of the heyday of Diana v Camilla. And it’s been kept alive by a certain fan-base’s desire to think they know what goes on inside and outside of the Wales bedroom. Let’s break down the origin of this rumor, parse out the credible from the unbelievable, and look at all the ways Princess Catherine and Lady Rose have sneakily signaled that there was no truth to this rumor. This will be a very long post filled with photos, screen grabs and Royal Tea. Enjoy!
Who is Rose Hanbury?
Sarah Rose Hanbury is married to David Cholmondeley, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley who holds the role of Lord Great Chamberlain. They have been married since 2009 and have three children: Twin boys Alexander Hugh George Cholmondeley, Lord Oliver Timothy George Cholmondeley and a daughter, Lady Iris Marina Aline Cholmondeley. Their ancestral seat is Houghton Hall located in Norfolk which is near the Prince and Princess of Wales’s country home Anmer Hall.
A Growing Friendship
In July of 2016, the Cholmondeleys hosted a dinner fundraising gala for one of the Princess’s patronages, EACH Children’s Hospices at Houghton Hall. From the photos taken that evening, a great time was had by all.
The Wales’s are not known to attend private events like this for their patronages so it was a testament to their burgeoning friendship with the Cholmondeleys that they RSVP’d as the guests of honor.
The couple’s friendship grew and Rose, as the wife of the Lord Great Chamberlain, was invited to the Spanish State Banquet held at Buckingham Palace on July 12, 2017. She was escorted and seated next to Prince Harry.
The Start of the Rumors
In March of 2019, Dan Wooten a scummy journalist for The Sun, wrote about a “fallout” between Princess Kate and Rose.
The detail of Wooten writing this story is very important. In one of those bowels of Twitter I alluded to, the conspiracy goes that Wooten is in cahoots with the Wales’s! If anyone has reason to not like Wooten or collaborate with him, it’s the Wales’s. Prince William has cut out friends for being disloyal and had a front seat view to his mother attempting to court the press (Diana regularly hosted reporters in her private apartments at Kensington Palace and collaborated with them on stories).
Details of the story included quotes attributed to Rose’s brother about the “affair” and saying David was gay. The denial was swift. Rose’s brother threatened to sue for libel and slander and the article was yanked down. And Prince William also threatened legal action against the article. It’s important to remember that Rose Hanbury and her brother are private citizens. So legal actions they put forth were absolutely necessary and warranted. This wasn’t just a “rumor” that affects members of the Royal Family, who are in the public sphere and essentially (for better or worse) regarded as “public property”. The Cholmondeleys are an innocent family whose lives were turned upside down over ridiculous rumors that were not able to pass the legal test.
Sources? Says who?
Shortly after the stories were pulled, the Wales’s and the Cholmondeleys attempted to put forward a united front. Two years after throwing the charity dinner, Rose became an official patron of EACH Hospices in April of 2019 and was there to oversee construction of the new Hospice Center.
But more rumors by way of gossip columnists with no ties to either party reared its head. Enter Nicole Cliffe, Giles Coren and the merry band of “reporters” who were going to “break the story wide open”.
Cliffe, a pro-Sussex journalist was one of the “sources” to the rumor and she tweeted the below thread on Twitter:
With the official blue checkmark next to her name, Twitter users and gossip journalists naturally jumped on the train and missed the phrase “great deal of personal editorializing”. Coren, a British food writer had this to say four days before Cliffe’s tweets:
Laineygossip, a Canadian blogger with a huge following online even included Giles’s tweet in one of her blog posts where she described him a “sh!t-stirrer” with a reputation for “being deliberately provocative”. We’ll come back to that description…
With Giles’s “verified” Twitter account followed people taking everything he said as word. It goes without saying that neither Coren or Cliffe ran in the same circles as the Wales’s and Cholmondeleys. Neither are known for their Royal connections nor posh ties. “Everyone knows”. Who is “everyone”? But it didn’t matter. Bloggers ran with it. But the key to talking sh!t? Don’t write checks your bum can’t cash. Someone on Instagram called Giles out on his tweet where he “confirmed” the affair. And once rubber met the road? Coren folded:
“I was joking”. He wrote a column in the Telegraph a couple of years later saying he was “JOKING”, stated he knew nothing about the Royal Family (not surprised, what would a restaurant critic know about the private lives of Turnip Toffs?) and that his tweets were made when he was essentially drunk tweeting for attention.
A month after Giles’s Instagram comment, Cliffe, who was taken as an arbiter of truth for this affair, wrote a blog post stating that she was a “private person” with “no special info” on their marriage. Everything she said was pure speculation.
No different than Seth on TikTok who swears he’s heard that Earth is flat, Nicole said her tweet was not based on any knowledge. She personally had not received any news, tea or gossip whatsoever about this affair. This was just a theory, based on thing but intuition. The burden of proof on tweets is much lower than a newspaper.
So the two people used as proof for the “affair” stated unequivocally that they were either drunk lying for attention or just theorizing like everyone else, and two private citizens successfully threatened litigation to get a harmful story taken down.
Remember Coren being described as a “provocative sh!t stirrer” by Laineygossip? Turns out he’s less “provocative” and more “racist and offensive”.
Nothing screams credibility quite like stating Meghan Markle needs a primate ecologist instead of a pediatrician and “joking” that you want to sexually assault then murder your 12 year old neighbor for playing the drums too loudly. Do the people using him as corroboration for this supposed affair know what an inappropriate person he is? Or does it only matter that his drunk rambling feeds your hope that the Prince of Wales is having an affair?
Despite the rivalry and cheating rumors, we’ve seen Catherine and Rose subtly put up a united front over the years. We’ve also seen their friends and family do the same. Even Prince Harry alluded to these rumors in Spare. Lets dig in:
In December 2019, the Cholmondeleys accompanied the Middleton and Wales’s to church in Norfolk and in January 2020, David and Rose were invited to celebrate Catherine’s birthday. All of Catherine’s closest friends and her Middleton family were in attendance. If Catherine was relaly trying to “freeze” someone out, why would she invite them to private occasions like this? The Cholmondeleys are part of this set because they are friends.
Pippa Matthews, Catherine’s younger sister named her daughter “Rose”. The Middleton Clan are an extremely tight and close-knit family. And Pippa and Catherine are thick as thieves. If my sister was betrayed by a close friend, and said close friend also happened to be sleeping with my brother-in-law, the chances of giving my daughter this woman’s name would’ve been less than zero . Not only would it have been a near constant reminder of this woman, but it’d also likely hurt my sister to the bone. To be transparent: I’m not saying Catherine and Pippa conspired to name her daughter Rose to confuse the rumor-mongers. I think Pippa and her husband liked the name Rose and gave it to their child because there was no baggage to consider.
Now, this might seem like a silly thing, but I believe it’s not a coincidence that at the Coronation Rose Hanbury was photographed in the same style of shoe the Princess of Wales wore the day before while greeting well wishers. Both the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Sussex have worn this style of Aquazurra shoe before. In fact, when Catherine was photographed in this outfit, the Twitter warriors predictably accused her of copying Markle. I like to think that because Markle was unable to attend, both women planned a similar color scheme for their outfits and wore the shoes in her honor…They knew people would talk. And they didn’t care. This was done purposefully.
Their son Oliver played a role in King Charles Coronation. The peerage is not lacking in young, titled boys who could’ve taken part in the ceremony but the Cholmondeley’s second son Oliver was asked to be a page boy at the event. Risk versus Reward: If there was legitimate tension between the families, the King would have picked someone another person from a blue-blooded family. The King has made concessions for the Wales’s comfort many times and if there was truth to the rumors, he would not have wanted a distraction on his day.
In Spare, Prince Harry recounts his brother calling him in a rage because a story had appeared that was untrue. Harry doesn’t outright say it’s The Sun story but the timeline of when he received the call from William lines up with early Spring. At that time, that was the only big story that William would’ve conceivably taken umbrage to. Harry described the story as “disgusting”, “false” and “not true at all.” If there were any truth to these rumors, and he showed a clear lack of respecting other people’s privacy in his book, Harry would not have written the story off as untrue.
Notable and well-respected Royal Biographers have written many books in the last few years and none of them have been able to confirm, verify or authenticate rumors of an affair. Tina Brown, author of The Palace Papers chalked the rumors up to the older Norfolk set who were quite incestuous in their younger years. They could not understand you can just be friends with your neighbors without sleeping with them. Robert Lacey, author of Battle of Brothers said he spent months trying to get corroboration on the stories and rumors being spread. He was not able to verify a thing. He interviewed Giles Coren and Coren echoed his earlier statements: He was a loudmouth who made it all up for shock value.
Fake “embargo” hysteria was all over in late 2021 when Alex Tiffin posted on Twitter that the press injunction Prince William put in (what injunction?) to “stop the press from talking about his affair” was “worthless” in Scotland where he lived. He also had an official Twitter checkmark so people followed him in droves just waiting for the tea.
The teapot was bone dry…No such sweetened tea or embargo lift occurred. The only winner was Alex, who thanks to churning up this unadventurous story, now had hundreds of new subscribers who had signed up to his website thinking he was going to “expose” Prince William. Solid A for Grifting.
A little bit of digging revealed that Tiffin had sparked a terror scare in Scotland by texting some attendees during prayer at the Mosque that he “wanted to kill the unbelievables”. A few years before that, he was charged with assaulting a pregnant woman.
So, slim pickings if the “proof” of the affair hinges between
A racist, wannabe shock jock
A man who raised the terror level threat to Orange and physically assaulted a pregnant woman
A woman who walked back “thoughts” immediately.
These are the people being used as justification for believing the rumor? Makes me chuckle.
And finally. What nails that there is no conflict or affair? The story in The Mail from Monday showed that the Princess of Wales had dinner at Houghton Hall with the Cholmondeleys! They convinced her to attend the Houghton Arts and Music Festival, held on their estate. After some talking with her security she agreed.
When I read this story, it seemed way too specific to be untrue. And I knew it would only be a matter of time until a photo got leaked. Lo and behold, last night we got one:
You can clearly see Princess Catherine holding a drink, the festival lights to the left, David Cholmondeley to her right, and Rose peeking out just behind. Open and shut. You don’t socialize with your husband’s mistress. Not like this. The Evening Standard had details on the night and it turns out, the Princess is a great tipper:
Of all the festivals, in all the towns, in all the world, the Princess of Wales walked into Houghton Festival this weekend.
Accompanied by a string of security guards and a group of friends, Kate sipped on spicy margaritas, left a hefty tip for festival staff, and enjoyed the soundscape of 24-hour techno that surrounded her.
According to reports, Kate was hesitant, but eventually agreed and attended with a large security detail. Prince William wasn’t there.
At the festival, she shunned the food trucks, instead opting for the upscale on-site restaurant, Turntable & Napkin, where festivalgoers can treat themselves to a four-course meal, featuring burrata, panzanella, short rib ragu, and affogato, for £60 a head.
Her companions apparently carted in a huge, balthazar-sized bottle of AIX rosé and, together with Kate, left the festival restaurant staff a £700 tip.
Spicy margaritas and short rib ragu? I’m sold! It sounds like a fun night. And if the festival held on her friend’s property gets even more publicity, that’s a win.
There’ve been many stories written in the past that make the Wales’s look “bad”. The ridiculous stories about “pegging”? The Princess of Wales having anorexia. The story released last month regarding Prince George possibly not serving in the military, which would be a change in tradition for the Heir to the throne. These have all went unremarked. The only time the Wales’s ever hit back is when they personally feel aggrieved or violated, not guilty. When photographers used long-lenses to spy on William and Catherine as they vacationed on their own private time, William threatened legal action, sued and won damages. William didn’t threaten legal action because he was worried about being exposed. If that were the case, why are the stupid pegging remarks outright ignored? People believing he enjoys it up the bum is no skin off his nose. But the public believing he would betray his wife? And potentially have his children, or worse, his children’s friends read those lies and regurgitate them? That is where he’ll step up. More than anyone, he knows and remembers what it’s like to be a child and having people gossip about your parents. Paparazzi may Harry’s trigger, but shielding his children is William’s trigger. His kids are friends with the Cholmondeley’s kids. Nipping this salacious rumor in the bud by legal means was the only course of action.
It’s also worth noting that Royals threaten legal action all the time. When the bullying story broke, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex threatened legal action against The Times and Valentine Low, but the story stayed up because the author of the story had met the burden of proof and cleared all legal hoops. The same occurred when Low published his book, Courtiers. But there have also been stories about the Sussexes that’ve been taken down and retracted due to the newspapers unable to meet the burden of proof.
When news broke in The Sun that Prince William had a new girlfriend (a one Kate Middleton) they splashed their photo on the front page. The Palace threatened to sue for invasion of privacy and when that didn’t work, attempted to intimidate The Sun by declaring their press credentials would be null and void for Royal events. The Sun did not blink; those photos were worth their weight in gold. In the year following the story, their reporters were not allowed as official Royal Rota members. What’s important to remember in this story is that if a story is good enough, corroborated and able to withstand a legal fight, newspapers will not back down. And there is no story worth “swapping” for that would trump the future King of England having an affair with his wife’s close friend.
This leads me to my final thoughts on this music festival story: I think Princess Catherine’s attendance was an authorized media brief by the Wales’s. I believe they welcome the world knowing that Catherine can also enjoy herself solo with her friends, especially if there’s the added benefit of and killing two birds with one stone: Showing she is tight with the Cholmondeleys. A ferocious public response or fierce denial was never a viable option. All it’d do is legitimize the rumors and make tongues wag even more. It’s much more fun to spend time dancing with friends, sipping on margaritas and stuffing your faces with yummy foods.
-Lady Sinclair
A brilliant piece that needed to be written to shine light on the facts (not the media/social media rumours) 👏