Rose Hanbury's Family Has Had Their Fair Share Of Controversies

Following the disappearance of Catherine, Princess of Wales, from the public eye in early 2024, William, Prince of Wales, couldn't escape rumors of an affair with Rose Hanbury, a family friend and fellow aristocrat. Although Hanbury was relatively unknown to many until the supposed cheating scandal hit mainstream media, especially outside of the U.K., her own family is no stranger to controversy.

For starters, Hanbury married David Cholmondeley, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, at the age of 25, while he was 49. They met six years earlier, when Hanbury was still a teenager, but it remains unclear when exactly they started dating. However, it wasn't just their significant age gap that raised eyebrows; they sped through every major milestone in their romance. In 2009, they announced their engagement and quietly tied the knot the very next day, elevating Hanbury to the title of Marchioness of Cholmondeley. On their wedding day, Hanbury's mother told The Telegraph that the newlyweds were expecting twins, adding drama to the already unusual situation. The twins, Alexander and Oliver, were also born in 2009, making the year very busy for the noble couple.

While the substantial age difference between Cholmondeley and Hanbury drew some attention at the time of their wedding, it wasn't the first time Hanbury found herself in the spotlight over a family controversy.

If you thought Rose Hanbury marrying a man almost twice her age was strange, her sister doing the same might knock your socks off. In March 2010, Marina Hanbury, who is three years older than Rose, announced she was engaged to Ned Lambton, the Earl of Durham, 20 years her senior.

There are two versions of how the pair initially met, with the first one being much more controversial than their large age gap. According to the Daily Mail, Marina met Ned through his son, Fred Lambton, who was once reportedly engaged to Rose. As if that wasn't messy enough, Marina is said to have lived with Fred at one point. "It's all a bit incestuous," an insider close to the nobles told the outlet.

However, according to a report from The Telegraph, Marina and Ned hit it off in a more common way. Apparently, Ned messaged Marina on Facebook after dreaming about her, allegedly telling her, "I know I am way too old for you, but I love you." Marina vacationed at Villa Cetinale, Ned's villa in Tuscany, Italy, as a teenager, which is reportedly how she first crossed paths with the earl. The pair married in January 2011, making Marina the Countess of Durham. They have four children together.

Rose Hanbury's immediate family has had their fair share of controversies, with her father being no exception. Tim Hanbury, a web designer, was refused boarding a Ryanair flight in May 2023 because of a Brexit-imposed regulation he was evidently not aware of. After the U.K. withdrew from the European Union in 2016, British citizens are obligated to have a passport no older than 10 years when traveling to the EU, which wasn't the case for Tim.

According to a Daily Mail report, when Tim approached the check-in desk at the Essex airport, he was swiftly denied. "Tim was very upset and frustrated. He was fuming about Ryanair because he could not have the weekend away that he was looking forward to," a friend of the web designer told the outlet. While the incident didn't escalate further, it wasn't Tim's first drama involving a mode of transportation.

Apparently, Tim once hijacked a bus full of tourists after a wild night out in London, according to his longtime friend Henry John FitzRoy Somerset, the 12th Duke of Beaufort, who wrote about the incident in his memoir, "The Unlikely Duke." After taking the terrified tourists for a spin around the block, Tim reportedly left the bus and went back to the club, per the Daily Mail. When asked to comment, Tim claimed that the story was blown out of proportion.