I saw some people posting this Daily Mail headline over the weekend, and it seemed very strange, like the Mail was poking Prince William for some reason. I mean, I think I know the reason(s), but still. The headline: “The secret posh pecking order: Our high society insider reveals the REAL ranking and rivalry of blue bloods, from the top-tier toff every husband wants to bed, to the C-list woman William calls when he wants to blow off steam.” Absolutely fascinating, right? It’s almost as if (once again) they want to yank on William and Kate’s leashes and get them off their asses somehow. The piece was written by Charlotte Griffiths (the same one bitching about how Harry and Meghan call each other “my wife/husband”), and it’s full of all sorts of shady sh-t. First of all, the “top-tier toff every husband wants to bed” is exactly who you think it is: Rose Hanbury. Some highlights:
Proximity to the Windsors determines your A-list status: As a long-time observer of the in-crowd, I can tell you that behind the perfect teeth, and even more perfect manners, these elite circles harbour intense rivalries. The ultimate test of who is ‘in’ is still judged by proximity to the Royal Family. Beyond that, social influence and good old-fashioned money are the things that count.
Top of the A-list: Top of everyone’s dream guest-list is Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley (pronounced ‘Chumley’). The 40-year-old entered the A list in 2009 when she married the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley and became chatelaine of Houghton Hall, a 106-room neo-Palladian pile in Norfolk built for Britain’s first Prime Minister Horace Walpole, bedecked with chinoiserie and hand-printed wallpaper.
Enigmatic & cool Rose Hanbury: Rose has remained top-tier ever since her marriage – and is a source of endless fascination in high society, which is why she gets invited to everything. However, very few ‘stiffy’ invitations – the nickname for those written on card so stiff it can’t be folded – are grand enough for her to accept, so it’s tricky to earn a place on her marble mantlepiece. Part of her allure is that she’s enigmatic and choosy about her friends. Invitations to Houghton are like gold dust. She tends to mix only with a trusted inner circle of fellow Norfolk ‘Turnip Toffs’, the name given to the county’s landowning set.
Absolutely fascinating: At parties, I have noticed that Rose often slinks into the shadows, preferring private chats with girlfriends to dancing on tables. More beguiling in real-life than she is in photographs (she’s not so consistently photogenic as her neighbour the Princess of Wales), most husbands secretly – and not so secretly – fancy Rose. When it comes to royal circles, Rose ticks this box too. Much mischief is spoken of her being the Princess of Wales’s ‘rural rival’ in Norfolk’s social hierarchy but they are close friends. One wouldn’t imagine that the Princess’s sister Pippa would have named her younger daughter ‘Rose’ if there was any tension between the two women.
Prince William’s friendship with a C-lister: If you measure aristocratic clout by your royal friends then Susanna Warren, 36, has certainly earned her place thanks to being the first person Prince William calls when he needs to blow off steam. On those increasingly rare occasions when he decides to go ‘out-out’, it’s velvet-rope queen Susanna, whom William calls ‘Suze’, who can help. She’s events director at Camden’s trendiest members club House of Koko. Despite the insalubrious location, Koko is a hot ticket and William was spotted dad dancing there in 2023 with his best friend Guy Pelly, Susanna’s ex-boyfriend. She may not flaunt her connections but underneath Susanna’s bashful demeanour lies a steely woman with 17 years of loyal service in the inner royal circle.
The thing about William “needing to blow off steam” is so interesting, because there’s a conspiracy of silence about William’s whereabouts and activities on a daily level. Occasionally, over the years, people will get a glimpse of how he parties without Kate, or goes to clubs with his bros or goes to dinner with some mystery woman. And then there’s zero follow-up and the press plays dumb about how the Wales marriage is being held together with a flimsy piece of string. As for the Rose Hanbury stuff… lmao, Pippa naming her daughter “Rose” is cited as the reason why the affair rumors are false. Yeah. Enigmatic, cool, not-so-photogenic Rose who slinks off to corners and gets the attention of all the toff husbands. Sure. Nothing to see here, folks!
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Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
