Amid the ongoing drama involving the UK's Prince William and the "disappearance" of his wife Kate Middleton, there has been the entry of a third character rumoured to be William's girlfriend -- Lady Sarah Rose Cholmondeley, whose maiden name was Hanbury and who is colloquially known simply as Rose Hanbury.
Reportedly a key figure in Middleton and Prince William’s inner circle, Sarah Rose Cholmondeley, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, is a former model and was once a researcher for an MP. The 39-year-old, now spends her time managing the estate of her husband, David Rocksavage, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, The Independent reported. The couple live with their three children in their stately home in Norfolk called Houghton Hall.
Built for the country's first prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in the 1720s, Houghton Hall is set in extensive parkland. It has a walled garden and sumptuously decorated interiors by famed English architect William Kent. The building is only a few kilometres away from Anmer Hall, the home of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Sarah Rose Cholmondeley has been widely hailed for her sartorial style over the years, drawing praise at events including the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
She also attended the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla last May, where she wore a white dress with bold black detailing and a black bow at the neck, paired with a veiled headband, bow heels, drop diamond earrings, and a matching brooch.
Her links to the royal family go back generations: her maternal grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Lambert, was one of eight bridesmaids to the late Queen Elizabeth II’s wedding to the Duke of Edinburgh. Her father Timothy Hanbury was a website designer, and her mother Emma Hanbury was a fashion designer. Lady Sarah Rose started modelling when she was 23.
According to a report in Harpers Bazaar, she marchioness is among the seven patrons of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices, which offers care and support for children suffering from life-threatening diseases. Kate Middleton is the hospice's royal patron.
She met her now husband David Cholmondeley -- who is 23 years her senior -- while on holiday in Italy in 2003. The couple announced their engagement six years later and got married in 2009, The Independent reported. They have three kids: 13-year-old twins Oliver Timothy and Alexander Hugh, and 7-year-old Iris Marina Aline.
Last year, British journalist and author Omid Scobie claimed in his book Endgame: Inside the Royal Family and the Monarchy’s Fight for Survival that Prince William and Kate Middleton had distanced themselves from their former friend Rose Hanbury after rumours of an affair between her and William surfaced in 2019.
There are also speculations that Hanbury’s daughter, Iris, is actually William’s child. Kate Middleton's recent absence from the public eye has only fuelled the fire with rumours of a separation between the royal couple due to Prince William's alleged involvement with Hanbury.
Although Kensington Palace had stated that due to an abdominal surgery in January, Middleton would not be attending to public duties until easter, none of the three have addressed the rumours.
In an interview, Scobie said that because William and Kate “never addressed” the affair rumor with Hanbury, it will likely “never go away,” however, that doesn’t mean that the story is true. “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,” he said. “They never addressed it, so those rumors will never go away even though there’s no truth to suggest that they are true.”
Read more: The Kate Middleton mystery: A complete timeline of her ‘disappearance’
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