﻿Is Prince William’s Royal Affair actually real --
or could it be totally invented by gossip and the media?
“You be careful what you say now,
‘cause these guys, they’re filming everything.”
“I know!” Right now, the press and the
Internet won’t let rumors of a secret affair between
Prince William and Rose Hanbury die. There’s even talk that they spent
2023 Valentine’s Day together. There’s basically no true
evidence of anything, while certain insiders claim
it’s a known fact, or give indirect fuel to the fire.
So will we ever be able to know? The Royals are a very carefully
managed industry -- a closed shop to all
but the very few, with a delicate symbiotic
relationship with the press. They have the money and influence
to pour cold water on any stories before they gain credibility.
“Let me give you some background on William
that the Firm has tried very hard to scrub from existence.”
Meanwhile the history of the Royal Family
is full of juicy affairs and beloved mistresses,
so the press is highly aware of how magnetically we’re drawn
to this story arc of the Royal other woman.
Here’s our take on William’s supposed Royal Affair,
and the seemingly never ending arms race to find out
what’s really going on behind the doors of the palaces.
What was the spark that lit the fire of these Prince William rumors?
Interestingly the affair rumors didn’t start out as affair rumors,
but focused on an alleged feud between Kate Middleton and Rose Hanbury,
her so-called rural rival. This then escalated when
American tabloid In Touch suggested that the root of this feud was
an affair between Rose and Will. So far, so spurious, but when
British journalist Giles Coren tweeted that everyone knew
about the affair, a tweet which the Palace reportedly
pressured him to delete, that almost became the smoking gun.
And when a shady rumor about a prince whose wife
was allowing him to have an affair floated on gossip channel Deux Moi,
people quickly put two and two together,
and the hashtag #PrinceOfPegging was born.
“No shame, if that’s your thing, but it does mean that
somebody’s had to explain it to the Queen.”
Throughout this, no sources were named, and no evidence was given.
But we see how lots of individual rumors
clustered together to form this bigger scandal.
The feud between William and Harry, which was pretty public
knowledge by this point, was now said not to be
about their wives not getting along, as many long assumed,
but actually due to William’s affair. Strangest was the fact
that writer Nicole Cliffe -- who by her own admission
is not a Royal source, but simply a lover of Royal gossip --
was cited as evidence that Harry disapproved of William’s behavior
given how similar it was to what their father did to Princess Diana.
Perhaps the strongest seeming evidence seemed to
come in Harry and Meghan’s documentary when Harry said
“They were happy to lie to protect my brother”,
which does seem like an actual insider confirming
that the palace covered up something big for William.
But it’s still not stated these lies were about an affair.
So looking at this sequence of events, we can see either a
conspiracy unraveling, or a snowball of off-base gossip
and the press trying to construct a Royal narrative.
The biggest reason we’re all so prime to believe this story
is familial history. From Henry VIII’s six wives,
to Captain Mark Phillips’ illegitimate child,
to the breakdowns of both Prince Charles and Prince Andrew’s
marriages in the 90s, this desire for scandal seems
born out of a belief that, well…it runs in the family.
At the same time, these affairs are big business for the tabloids.
If you think about the Charles and Diana affair,
it provided so many historic moments: the revenge dress,
Charles’ leaked phone call, Diana’s interview.
“Well, there were three of us in this marriage,
so it was a bit crowded.” And maybe the other reason
why stories of Royal affairs are so believable is because
of the history of royal marriages; rather than being the great,
glamorous fairy tales promised by Royal weddings,
the reality is often far less romantic than meets the eye.
Royal marriages simply aren’t like normal marriages.
A lot of the time, love doesn’t really come into the equation.
Instead, it has to be what’s right for The Firm.
Edward VII famously abdicated over not being able to marry
the woman he loved, Wallis Simpson.
And Princess Margaret too was never able to marry who she wanted.
“You’ve hated how Peter and I have caught the popular imagination,
hated it enough to want to destroy it.” “This is madness.”
With Kate Middleton, much was made of her meeting William at university
and William falling for her after seeing her in a fashion show.
But there were just as many stories that suggested
she effectively campaigned for the role of his wife:
having a picture of William on her wall as a teenager,
going to St Andrew’s specifically to be close to him,
and being dubbed Waity Katie because of how willing she
was to bide her time