Rose Hanbury (centre), earlier this year, quashed rumours of having an affair with Prince William amid rumours swirling about his wife Princess Kate’s health. (Image: Reuters)
A report by Vulture claimed that UK-based news media outlets removed references, deleted or amended articles on rumours of affairs between Prince William and Rose Hanbury.
An investigation conducted by a media outlet points out that UK-based media outlets have ‘quietly deleted’ reports speculating that Prince William had an affair with British aristocrat, Sarah Rose Hanbury.
The report released by Vulture, penned by Ellie Hall, put together a timeline showing stories published on the topic by UK-based news media outlets, dating back to 2019 to March 2024 (when the rumours emerged following Kate Middleton’s cancer diagnosis), were either taken down or modified.
The report said that stories published by The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Express and The Mirror on the topic were amended. Vulture in its report also said that from opinion pieces to aggregated articles, stories that covered items like rumours, stories claiming Hanbury to be a potential romantic “contender” for William and stories claiming a tussle between Hanbury and Kate Middleton, were all amended, removed or substantially altered.
Vulture said that some of the deleted or updated articles were accessible in their original form via resources like the Internet’s WayBack Machine.
Hansbury earlier denied rumours regarding an affair between her and Prince William through her lawyers while speaking to Business Insider and said they were “completely false”.
The Vulture report said that it remains unclear if the stories by the news publications were erased or edited at the requests of either representatives of Prince William or Hanbury, who is the Marchioness of Cholmondeley.
The Guardian told the Vulture that it removed a reference to a joke talk-show host Stephen Colbert made on air about the affair rumours in March but said it was due to an “internal editorial consideration and not following external outreach”.
The rumours of Rose and William having an affair were making rounds on social media but gained much prominence after American late night TV show host Stephen Colbert on his show did a segment on the rumours of the affair between the Marchioness of Cholmondeley and the Prince of Wales.
Marchioness of Cholmondeley is Rose Hanbury’s royal title. Rose Hanbury’s grandmother Lady Elizabeth Lambart was one of the bridesmaids at the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s 1947 wedding, according to a report by the New York Post.
