[imagesource:flickr]

Rose Hanbury has come back into the spotlight, as rumours swirl around what’s going on with Kate Middleton.

The little-known Marchioness of Cholmondeley’s name gets dusted off once in a blue moon when the internet remembers the rumours (RUMORS!) that she and Prince William allegedly (ALLEGEDLY!) had an affair.

Now, Stephen Colbert is even tongue-wagging about it. “For those of you who are royal watchers, I’m afraid I’ve got some troubling news about England’s royal family,” the comedian began during a recent screening of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.

“The kingdom has been all aflutter by the seeming disappearance of Kate Middleton. Well now, 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 went on.

Kate has barely been seen in public since her planned abdominal surgery in January – bar that one questionably grainy photo of her in a car and then that conspiracy-laden Mother’s Day photoshop op she released on Twitter, which have all but spurned on the maddest rumours about where she might be, what state she is in, and now, what could be going on in her relationship with the prince.

That last snapshot was meant to put to bed the speculation about Kate’s long absence from the public eye, but it backfired and Kensington Palace has refused to release the original unedited photo.

“Canceling all plans this afternoon as I’m now down a very deep rabbit hole,” one royal watcher joked on X. “I’m not generally into conspiracy theories but this Kate Middleton photo has got me feeling like a flat earther,” another wrote.

As Colbert noted on his show, some speculation about Kate has concerned poor Rose.

As Cosmopolitan notes, these rumours of an affair between William and the Marchioness have been going on for several years:

It all started back in 2019 when tabloids zeroed in on an alleged “falling out” between Kate, William, and Rose. Then, In Touch went ahead and reported that Wills and Rose may have had an affair, and that when Kate allegedly confronted her husband, he “laughed it off saying there was nothing to it.”

Daily Mail’s royal reporter Richard Kay said the hurtful rumours of fallout are “simply false”, and William’s attorney denied it, telling the Daily Beast it was “false and highly damaging”.

But still, speculation has once again been dusted off in the wake of the collective “Where Is Kate Middleton?” conversation.

Lucky for them, Meghan Markle just released her new lifestyle venture, American Riviera Orchard, which is set to sell jams, cutlery and nut butter to rival the ‘domestic goddesses’ such as Martha Stewart.

The Dutchess really got her timing spot on – for better (distracting away from the chaos in the UK) or worse (boasting amidst the stress of her family(ish)).

[sources:nypost&cosmopolitan]