Lady Rose Hanbury

Submission 1,420

Part of a series on "Where's Kate Middleton?" Conspiracy Theories / Kategate. [View Related Entries]

About

Sarah Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of Cholmondeley is a British peeress and a former model who is rumored to be the mistress of Prince William of the British royal family and the possible reason for suspected discord among William and his wife Kate Middleton. After British news outlet The Independent ran a profile piece on Rose Hanbury amid the 2024 Where's Kate Middleton? controversy, she became a subject of viral discussions on social media, with users referencing the infidelity rumors and joking that the British media were "soft launching" Prince William's mistress.

Online History

2019 Cheating Rumor

On March 22nd, 2019, British tabloid The Sun^[1] reported on a falling out between British Princess Kate Middleton and her long-term friend Rose Hanbury, writing that the Princess viewed Hanbury as a "rural rival" and told Prince William to "phase her out" as one of the couple's closest confidantes. The article did not provide an explanation for the rivalry, but cited a source that claimed that "it was well known that Kate and Rose had had a terrible falling out." The article was later removed from the website. On March 24th, the Daily Mail^[2] published an article that considered that the rivalry was simply a rumor.

The reported rivalry led to speculations on gossip blogs and social media, including a rumor that Prince William might have cheated with Rose Hanbury during Kate Middleton's third pregnancy in 2018. For example, on March 30th, 2019, journalist Nicole Cliffe made an X^[3] / Twitter thread in which she relayed speculations that William was caught having an affair with Hanbury and that a friend of Hanbury leaked the story after she herself admitted to the affair. The first post in the thread (since deleted) received over 1,400 reposts and 9,400 likes prior to being removed (shown below, left and right).

In early April 2019, U.S. entertainment magazine In Touch featured the rumor on its cover (shown below), with more blogs and media covering the rumor in the following weeks.^[4]

2024 Cheating Rumor

On March 10th, 2024, amid the spread of the "Where's Kate Middleton?" conspiracy theories on social media, British news outlet The Independent ran a profile piece on Lady Rose Hanbury, posting a link to the article on X^[5] / Twitter (shown below).

The timing of the article, which was released during the prolonged absence of Kate Middleton from the public eye and spawned rumors that the Princess of Wales may be divorcing her husband, was further boosted by Kensington Palace releasing a digitally altered photograph of Middleton in early March, inspired speculations that the royal family was inconspicuously introducing Prince William's mistress to the public.

On March 11th, 2024, X^[6] user @Bigalibigaliboo wrote, "Soft launching William's mistress now is WILD." The post (shown below, left) received over 750 reposts and 22,000 likes in one day. Later that day, X^[7] user @DeOne_ made a post that received over 6,800 reposts and 70,000 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Additionally, claims that Rose Hanbury was photographed next to Prince William in his car,^[8] as well as posts poking fun at Rose Hanbury's jawbreaker title^[9] saw spread online (examples shown below, left and right).