On March 12th, Stephen Colbert included a three-minute segment in his opening Late Show monologue about the rumors of an alleged affair between Prince William and Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. The rumors have been around since 2019, when Dan Wootton and Richard Eden began reporting of a cryptic rural-rivalry between the then-Duchess of Cambridge and Rose. Bread crumbs were left out and before long, William was sending out legal threats to British media outlets and selling out the Sussexes to deflect. The Rose story – whether it’s true or false – is central to everything that’s happened with the Windsors in the past five years, including the Sussexit. Well, Colbert aired out all of that tea in the Late Show segment. The Telegraph even noted, in their coverage the next day, that Colbert didn’t “warn” Kensington Palace about the segment, which led to a lot of flag-waving patriotism from Americans. Well, here’s something interesting: Rose is apparently threatening to sue Colbert.
Rose Hanbury is prepared to take legal action to shut down speculation that she had an affair with Prince William. In Touch confirmed that Hanbury’s lawyers sent a legal notice to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert after Stephen Colbert poked fun at rumors she was unfaithful with William in 2019 — and linked the alleged affair to speculation about Princess Kate Middleton‘s whereabouts as she recovers from surgery.
“The rumor appears to have entered into the mainstream media recently as a result of another joke made about it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Hanbury’s lawyers said in a statement. “We have written on our client’s behalf to CBS and various other reputable media organizations to confirm that the allegation is false.”
Colbert rehashed the drama on The Late Show on March 12. “Internet sleuths are guessing that Kate’s absence may be related to her husband, and the future King of England, William, having an affair,” he began. “I think we all know who the alleged other woman is, say it with me, The Marchioness of Cholmondeley. Now there have been rumors of an affair between William and [Rose] since 2019. According to tabloids, back then, when Kate supposedly confronted him about it, he ‘laughed it off, saying there was nothing to it.’ Aha, always a good response when your wife accuses you of cheating.”
Colbert is smart, his writers are smart and CBS’s lawyers are smart. These jokes likely made it through several layers of corporate bureaucracy, which is why they had such an impact in real time – it was the first time a major American talk show host even brought up the subject and Colbert threw in enough “allegedlys” and “guesses” to cover his tracks. Us Weekly also spoke to a defamation lawyer about whether Rose has a case:
“If you really go back and listen to what Stephen Colbert said, he was really just saying there are rumors and people are speculating no different than you and I are here,” attorney Neama Rahmani, who is not affiliated with the case and doesn’t represent either party, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, March 20. “We’re just reporting what other people are speculating. We’re not saying that it’s absolutely true that Rose had an affair with William or putting out a definitive statement because of the nuanced nature of what Colbert said.”
According to Rahmani, Colbert, 59, didn’t state the rumors as fact, which wouldn’t make a “a good defamation case” for Hanbury.
“She potentially can [sue], but I don’t think it’s going to be that good of a case,” Rahmani told Us. “These rumors have been going on for quite some time [and] obviously they resurfaced recently because of Kate’s disappearance and a doctored photo … Rose and [Princess] Kate [Middleton] have a relationship and there appears to have been a falling out.”
Yeah, as I said, I don’t think Rose would have much of a legal case, but it’s possible that she’s aiming for an on-air apology from Colbert or some kind of acknowledgement that she now claims the affair story is false, and let’s be real, she might get that. I could see Colbert agreeing to that, especially if he got corporate pressure from CBS. The thing is, if Colbert acknowledged it again – even if it was to apologize or say “Hanbury now says the rumors are false” – the Streisand Effect of this is kind of bonkers.
Meanwhile, the Atlantic’s Helen Lewis quickly published a piece called “I Hope You All Feel Terrible Now” in which she name-checked Colbert as some kind of ringleader for “why Kate had to announce.” Lewis wrote: “Stephen Colbert’s ‘spilling the tea’ monologue, which declared open season on the princess’s marriage, should probably be quietly interred somewhere.” Declared open season on Kate’s marriage? It was commentary on how William has treated Kate and William’s alleged lack of fidelity.
Never forget what James Palmer, the deputy editor of Foreign Policy, tweeted in 2021. This wasn’t some story randomly thought up by Stephen Colbert.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.