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The fact that Prince William and Kate Middleton can’t escape the Rose Hanbury affair rumors five years after the story surfaced should make every royal watcher realize the palace continues to make a PR mess. There hasn’t been a concrete shred of evidence that the fling ever occurred, yet the constant deletion of articles by the British tabloids, as pointed out by Vulture, makes the Prince of Wales look incredibly guilty, even when he isn’t.
The Daily Beast has Prince William’s pals calling it “rubbish on the internet” and Hanbury’s lawyers have strongly denied the allegations, but the author of Vulture’s deep dive article, Ellie Hall, believes the palace has their fingerprints all over this mess. By trying to “hide information” from the public, the royal family made internet sleuths even more interested in the story. Hall said, “I think that this story would have died on the vine back in 2019 if they hadn’t threatened legal action, because the fact that media organizations had been warned off it, as reported by The Daily Beast among others, then became the story. The fact that somebody really wants the story to go away is the only reason it’s still around.”
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Killing stories is traditionally against journalistic ethics, and it’s only raised a greater cloud of suspicion on the palace, especially after the family feuds and Prince Andrew’s Jeffrey Epstein controversy. Christopher Andersen, author of The King: The Life of Charles III, noted, “Anyone who was attempting to scrub or alter past coverage of Rose Hanbury’s alleged affair with William has a mighty—make that impossible—task ahead of them. Of course, the irony here is that, by trying to tidy up past articles, whoever is behind this is now pouring more fuel on the fire.”
Fans should look no further than the palace’s bungling of Kate’s cancer diagnosis earlier this year to see how unsophisticated their communications teams sometimes are. Honoring the Princess of Wales’ medical privacy was crucial, but it could have been done in a smoother way to stop the horrific conspiracies that spread over the internet. Her focus should have been on her health, but instead, Kate had to listen to more Hanbury gossip, coma rumors, and whispers about her marriage to William.
As one X user tweeted after Kate’s cancer revelation, “I don’t want to comment on #KateMiddleton’s condition but as a comms/PR person – the pivot to “this is the public’s shame” and “the problem was the conspiracy theories” and not the most unreal PR disaster I’ve ever witnessed from an unreliable/dangerous institution is the point.” The palace needs to rethink its PR strategies moving forward otherwise the Hanbury story and future controversies will only further damage their royal reputation.
Before you go, click to see all the biggest royal scandals in the past 50 years.
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