Rose Hanbury Subtly Shut Down Prince William Affair Rumors Amid Kate Middleton's Disappearance

William and Catherine, Prince and Princess of Wales, are going through a bit of a challenging time at the moment. Not only are they dealing with the stress of King Charles III's cancer diagnosis, but Kate is still recovering from abdominal surgery. Kate and the rest of the royals have kept pretty quiet about her condition, and while the statement from Kensington Palace announcing her hospital stay said that she wouldn't be making any public appearances until at least Easter, that hasn't stopped speculation.

Kate Middleton's absence from the public eye has led to some wild theories, one of which has been the resurfacing of an old rumor — that Prince William had an affair with Rose Hanbury, Marchioness of Cholmondeley. Hanbury herself hasn't said anything publicly about those rumors, now or in the past, but she recently posted a picture to the Houghton Hall Instagram page. Houghton Hall is the majestic country house in Norfolk where Hanbury lives with her husband and their three kids, and the social media page is usually dedicated to the house's history and its art-filled grounds, with few photos of the family. The fact that the recent post showed one of Hanbury's kids in the midst of Kate's absence seems to show that Hanbury is focusing on her family, not paying any attention to affair rumors.

The picture on the Houghton Hall Instagram page included the name of the artist and the sculpture in the caption — "Ryan Gander's 'Really shiny things that don't mean anything" –  and that artwork in particular could be interpreted as a comment on any potential rumors about Rose Hanbury and William, Prince of Wales. It was created to comment on how people can give significance to things that aren't actually of particular value and importance. The piece is on display on the grounds at Houghton Hall.

In the past, the Rose Hanbury affair rumors allegedly brought Prince William and Kate Middleton closer. But for them to come up again as the Princess of Wales is dealing with her health problems seems like it would add an unnecessary layer of stress to what may be an already tense time for the Wales family.

Along with the rumors that Hanbury has something to do with Kate's absence from the public eye, there's also plenty of guesses as to what her surgery was for with some royal fans thinking Kate's abdominal surgery is connected to her past pregnancies. Kate deserves privacy when it comes to her health, of course, and it seems that the royals are respecting that by keeping updates to a minimum, so it's unlikely that we'll get more in-depth details about her health any time soon — if ever.