People reckon the Royal Family are ‘soft launching’ Lady Rose Hanbury amid online conspiracy theories surrounding Prince William and Kate Mi...
People reckon the Royal Family are ‘soft launching’ Lady Rose Hanbury amid online conspiracy theories surrounding Prince William and Kate Middleton.
In recent days, the Princess of Wales has been at the centre of controversy after the family released a Mother’s Day picture.
On Sunday, the Waleses released a photo, taken by Prince William, of Catherine and her three children – Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis and Prince George.
This was the first image of Catherine that had been released since she underwent abdominal surgery in January.
But, over the course of the next 24 hours, Getty Images, AFP, Reuters, Associated Press and PA Media all retracted the image over concerns it had been “manipulated.”
In a statement on Monday morning, the Princess of Wales admitted to “editing” the photo herself and apologised for “any confusion” the photo has caused.
It came after weeks of speculation about why no pictures of her had been released by the palace since the operation.
Catherine spent 13 nights at the London Clinic, near Regent’s Park in central London, following abdominal surgery earlier this year.
The lack of clarity surrounding the photo and the Princess of Wales’s health has prompted huge online speculation, with some concluding the whole thing has been part of the royals ‘soft launching’ Lady Rose Hanbury.
Lady Hanbury, whose official title is Sarah Rose Cholmondeley, Marchioness of Cholmondeley – yes, really – is a former close friend of Kate’s and used to be neighbours with her and Will.
In 2009, she married one of Prince William’s close friends David Rocksavage, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, and the couple have had three children together.
Lady Hanbury’s family has a long-standing connection to the royals. According to reports, her grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Lambart, served as one of Queen Elizabeth’s II’s bridesmaids when she married Phillip in 1947.
More recently, Rose attended King Charles’s coronation last year, and her grandson, Lord Oliver, served as one of the four Pages of Honour at the ceremony, the Independent reports.
For years now, rumours have swirled about the nature of the relationship between Lady Hanbury and Prince William.
Allegations of an affair between the two first emerged in the tabloids April 2019, but there’s never been any evidence to suggest any truth to them and the Palace have never given them any attention.
These rumours combined with the recent Kate photo saga have led people online to come up with the conspiracy that the royals are trying to ‘soft launch’ Lady Hanbury as a new member of the family.
US TV host Stephen Colbert even addressed the Lady Hanbury speculation during his show on Wednesday night.
“Internet sleuths are guessing that Kate’s absence may be related to her husband, and the future King of England, William, having an affair,” Colbert said on his late night show.
He joked: “I think we all know who the alleged other woman is, say it with me, The Marchioness of Cholmondeley.”
Royal expert Omid Scobie told ET last year that he believes the speculation surrounding Lady Hanbury and Prince William is nothing more than “tittle-tattle,” after he’d tried to investigate the rumours for his book.
He said: “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.
“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’s and their fallout with Rose Hanbury.
“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 Princess of Wales is not expected to return to public duties until after Easter.
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