Rose Hanbury sends legal notice to Stephen Colbert over Prince William affair joke: report

This rose certainly has her thorn.

Lady Rose Hanbury, who was rumored to have a past affair with Prince William, reportedly sent a legal notice to Stephen Colbert after he made a joke about the pair during a recent episode of his CBS late-night show.

On the March 12 edition of the “Late Show,” Colbert, 59, trolled Marchioness of Cholmondeley, 40, and the Prince of Wales, 41, about the 2019 rumors.

Even more, he speculated they were still dating amid Kate Middleton’s recent abdominal surgery recovery.

“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 to In Touch.

The memo continued: “We have written on our client’s behalf to CBS and various other reputable media organizations to confirm that the allegation is false.”

The Post has reached out to Colbert for comment.

Middleton, 42, has been recuperating from her procedure that she underwent in January. She has seldom been seen in public since her hospital stay at the London Clinic and is set to return to the public eye around Easter.

Colbert touched upon her illness on his talk show, adding that the conspiracies surrounding her anonymity that have surfaced online could be related to William and Hanbury.

“Internet sleuths are guessing that Kate’s absence may be related to her husband, and the future King of England, William, having an affair,” Colbert said.

“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,” the comedian went on.

“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,” he claimed.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge married in 2011, and share three children together — Prince George, 10, Princess Charlotte, 8, and Prince Louis, 5.

The couple have been pals with Hanbury and her husband, David Cholmondeley, for years, with their son Oliver acting as a page of honor at King Charles’ coronation in May 2023.

The model denied gossip about an affair with the Prince of Wales via her attorneys on Monday.

According to Business Insider, Hanbury stated that the rumors “are completely false.”

Royal expert Nick Bullen then told Us Weekly on Tuesday that Hanbury is “very upset” by the speculation.

“I know people who know the Marchioness of Cholmondeley very, very well, and she absolutely was not having an affair with the Prince of Wales,” he explained.

Prince William, meanwhile, released a statement about the initial rumors in 2019 via a spokesperson, calling them “false and highly damaging.”

Royal expert Omid Scobie recently touched on the alleged scandal in his latest book about the royals, “Endgame,” and believes that nothing happened between the Prince of Wales and Hanbury. 

“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,” the writer explained to Entertainment Tonight in November 2023.

“They never addressed it, so those rumors will never go away even though there’s no truth to suggest that they are true,” he added.