Is Rose Hanbury really Kate Middleton’s replacement? The dark rumors, explained

These days you can’t log on to social media without seeing wild speculation as to what’s really going on behind the walls of Britain’s Royal palaces. First and foremost is the intense secrecy around Kate Middleton, which has just gone nuclear with the revelation that the high-profile Mother’s Day photo was faked.

Common to most theories is that all is not well between William and Kate and, if you’re reading about this topic online it won’t be long before the name Rose Hanbury pops up. Hanbury (aka the Marchioness of Cholmondeley) is at the nexus of modern palace intrigue, so who is she and why are some now calling her Kate’s “replacement”?

A Rose by any other name

Rose Hanbury is a 39-year-old former model and the wife of the 63-year-old David George Philip Cholmondeley, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. With him, she has three children (prepare yourself for some exceedingly British names), the 15-year-old twins Alexander Hugh George Cholmondeley, Earl of Rocksavage, and Lord Oliver Timothy George Cholmondeley, and an eight-year-old daughter Lady Iris Marina Aline Cholmondeley.

Hanbury has close links to William and Kate and has appeared at multiple royal occasions, including the coronation of King Charles III last year where her son Oliver was a page of honour. Those are the facts, but after this we’re moving firmly into the realm of speculation.

In 2019, writers Nicole Cliffe and Giles Coren independently reported that William and Rose had been caught having an extramarital affair (with some kinky and salacious details the cherry on top for gossiphounds). As Coren said in a now-deleted tweet:

“Yes. It is an affair. I haven’t read the piece, but I know about the affair. Everyone knows about the affair, darling.”

The story goes that this caused Kate to immediately sever relations with her former friend and was a major instigating factor in William and Harry falling out, with Harry reportedly said to be aghast that his brother would replicate their father’s cheating behavior that ruined their childhood and led to their mother’s untimely death.

Though widely reported internationally, the Hanbury affair never gained traction as a story in the United Kingdom, resulting in theories that the Royals suppressed press reporting of it in exchange for future access. Now, with Kate drama at an all-time high, Rose Hanbury has re-entered the conversation.

Is Rose Hanbury being “soft launched” as Kate 2.0?

You have to admit it’s odd timing for The Independent newspaper and Tatler to each publish a fawning and thoroughly PR-massaged profile of Rose Hanbury, particularly right in the middle of “where is Kate” fever. Another bizarre factor is that Tatler rapidly unpublished their feature on her for unknown reasons.

The theory goes that William and Kate’s relationship is effectively over (this speculation spurred on by her not wearing her wedding or engagement ring in the Mother’s Day photo) and that her disappearance is the result of complex backstage legal negotiations before they make the split public.

Furthermore, the idea is that Kensington Palace is quietly lining up Rose Hanbury to step into Kate’s shoes and is beginning the groundwork with puff pieces to introduce her to the British public. This process would be modelled on the geologically-paced campaign to transform Camilla from Charles’ widely despised mistress to the Queen Consort. So as far-fetched as this story sounds, it has technically already happened. And hey, like father like son, right?

Naturally, if any or all of this was true, it’d be a tabloid sensation and would do immense harm to William’s reputation, just as it did to Charles’ in the 1990s. That said, Charles eventually managed to get the public to overlook his cheating ways and is now a relatively liked King with his former mistress sitting comfortably in the next throne over. Maybe William thinks he can play the same hand?

As for where all this would leave Kate? Just like Diana before her, there’d be immense public sympathy, likely tempered by a barrage of negative stories about her planted in the press just as Harry and Meghan continue to endure. If Kate was kicked to the curb in favor of Rose, we suspect suspect her tell-all (inevitably to Oprah) would be the celebrity gossip event of the century. But if we were Kate, we’d be sure to check the brakes on any car we drive in, and for heaven’s sake stay away from tunnels in Paris.