The tabloids have been alleging rumors between Prince William and Rose Hanbury for years — but if the Prince of Wales is the other man... who's the first?
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00:00The tabloids have been alleging rumors between Prince William and Rose Hanbury for years.
00:05But if the Prince of Wales is the other man, who's the first?
00:09Like many British bluebloods, David Cholmondeley holds many names and titles. Born June 27,
00:161960, David George Philip Cholmondeley was christened Viscount Malpas before becoming
00:21the Earl of Rocksavage. He inherited his current title as the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley following
00:27his father's death in 1990. That title came with the role of Lord Great Chamberlain to
00:32Queen Elizabeth II until her death in 2022, a responsibility that Cholmondeley once told
00:38The New York Times that he was somewhat reluctant to take. In 1997, he told the publication,
00:44"[Being Marquess wasn't something I would have chosen for myself. In fact, I was rather
00:49frightened when it happened. I still am. I haven't got it all quite right yet."
00:53After the queen's death, Cholmondeley was appointed Lord-in-Waiting to King Charles
00:57III. This position demands that Cholmondeley represents the king at various royal events
01:02and engagements. His son, Lord Oliver Cholmondeley, is following in his father's royal footsteps,
01:07too, having served as a page of honor at Charles' coronation.
01:12In his youth, David Cholmondeley lived up to his Rocksavage name by partying like a
01:16rock star. Like many of England's elite, Cholmondeley was schooled at Eton. He then moved to France
01:21where he studied at the Sorbonne. Rather than embrace the rules and rigidity imposed
01:25by his heritage, the young man cemented his reputation as a playboy by dating a bevy of
01:30models and actresses. He was known for hobnobbing with a host of celebrities, including Mick
01:46Jagger and Johnny Depp, both of whom were well known for their wild ways.
01:51Cholmondeley also struck up what turned out to be a lifelong friendship with Francois-Marie
01:55Bagné. The two reportedly bought a home together in Paris, where they threw infamous parties
02:00for their collection of A-list friends. The French photographer, who later served jail
02:04time for scamming L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt out of her fortune, is also the
02:09godfather to Cholmondeley's twin boys.
02:12They say a man's home is his castle, and in the case of David Cholmondeley, it's actually
02:17He may not be a prince or a king, but Cholmondeley owns the ancestral Cholmondeley Castle, which
02:22is located in Cheshire. The first Marquess built the castle in the early 19th century,
02:27and generations of the Cholmondeley family have called it home ever since. While the
02:30castle itself is kept private, the 70 acres of garden surrounding it are open to the public
02:36at designated times.
02:37We've got the subtle, we've got the fantastic, we've got lots of color, lots of texture,
02:42the formal and the informal."
02:44This estate is just part of the estimated £112 million fortune that Cholmondeley inherited
02:50when he was 30 years old. It also includes Halton Hall, located in Norfolk, close to
02:54the residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, which is where the Cholmondeley family
02:58primarily reside.
03:00Despite his wealth and significant land holdings, it was reported that Cholmondeley was forced
03:04to sell several pieces of furniture and artifacts from Halton Hall to pay taxes and help with
03:09the estate's restoration costs. One piece, Hans Holbein's Lady with a Squirrel and a
03:15Starling, sold to the National Gallery for £10 million. As Cholmondeley told the Financial
03:20Times,
03:21These are hard decisions, but you have to make sacrifices, as many families have had
03:25to, in order to keep up these houses."
03:28With his vast fortune and party boy lifestyle, it seemed highly unlikely to those who knew
03:32David Cholmondeley that he was ready to settle down and start a family. But then, a young
03:3719-year-old model named Rose Hanbury entered the scene, and the 42-year-old Marquess was
03:42reportedly smitten. Their romance first bloomed in 2003, when the pair met in Tuscany at the
03:48home of disgraced politician Lord Lambton.
03:50Like the Marquess, Hanbury also has royal connections. Most notably, her maternal grandmother
03:56was a bridesmaid at the wedding of Queen Elizabeth II to the Duke of Edinburgh. While the courtship
04:01lasted six years, things escalated quickly after the couple's engagement was announced
04:05in June 2009. The next day, Hanbury's mother revealed that her daughter was pregnant. The
04:10day after that, Hanbury and Cholmondeley tied the knot. Unlike their close friends, the
04:14Prince and Princess of Wales, the Marchioness and Marquess decided to forgo the pomp and
04:19circumstance of a fairy tale wedding and instead quietly wed at Chelsea Town Hall in London.
04:24Cholmondeley expressed his enjoyment of married life in a Vanity Fair interview, saying,
04:29But to do things together with someone rather than doing things here alone, as I was for
04:33many years, has been very exciting."
04:36The road from bachelorhood to fatherhood was short for David Cholmondeley. Just a few months
04:40after marrying Rose Hanbury in 2009, he had not one but two male heirs. The twin boys
04:46were born 12 weeks early via a cesarean section, making it challenging to determine their birth
04:51order — which is important, since the firstborn inherits properties and titles. The topic
04:56became the talk of the town until the family revealed that Alexander Hugh George Cholmondeley
05:01had been the firstborn and was thereby christened the Earl of Rocksavage. His slightly younger
05:06brother, meanwhile, was titled Lord Oliver Timothy George Cholmondeley. The Marquess stands
05:11firm that the distinction between his heir and spare will be in title only, however,
05:16and it was the younger twin, Lord Oliver, who served as a page of honor at the coronation
05:20of King Charles III.
05:22Along with their younger sister, Iris, the siblings are growing up together at Houghton
05:26Hall, which delights their father. As he told Vanity Fair,
05:29"...it's very nice to have a family here. It's the first time there have been young
05:33children living here for about 80 or 90 years."
05:36Calling Houghton Hall a country home is like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch.
05:40Don't you want to look at the Grand Canyon?"
05:46Originally built in 1722 for David Cholmondeley's ancestor and Britain's first prime minister,
05:52Robert Walpole, the Marquess inherited the 4,000-acre, 106-room estate at the age of
05:5730. However, the longtime bachelor didn't call the hall his home until 2009, when he
06:02and his new wife welcomed their twin sons.
06:05According to Hanbury, maintaining a home of this size and historical significance is a
06:09full-time job, but the family has mostly conserved its original design, adding a few modern comforts
06:15such as a cozy family kitchen to accommodate their growing family. The house is also home
06:20to an astounding art collection begun by Walpole and amassed throughout generations
06:24of the Cholmondeley family. It was a part of this collection that the current Marquess
06:28had to reduce in order to pay for the home's restoration and upkeep. Since then, he has
06:33continued to preserve the past with an eye on the future, adding modern art to the grounds
06:37while maintaining the majority of the interior's original furnishings and decor. He told Vanity
06:42Fair,
06:43"...every generation has to find a way to keep these places going."
06:47It seems that, once the public started dissecting the photos of the Princess of Wales in the
06:51wake of Capegate, they just couldn't stop. For obvious reasons, royal watchers began
06:56to inspect photos of David Cholmondeley and Rose Hanbury too, including some taken at
07:00Houghton Hall. And they made one or two curious discoveries.
07:04Although the Marquess is worth hundreds of millions of pounds, some say his estate is
07:08filled with stolen treasures. The controversy occurred after eagle-eyed readers unearthed
07:13a May 2013 Vanity Fair article, along with a piece in the Financial Times exactly ten
07:18years later. In both articles, the couple are depicted surrounded by the beautiful artifacts
07:23found in their Norfolk country home.
07:25But there were a few pieces in particular that caught the attention of some people on
07:29X. These users pointed out that Houghton Hall appeared to be filled with authentic furniture
07:34and items that had originated in China. They accused Cholmondeley's paternal grandparents,
07:38the Sassoons, of taking these artifacts while they were trading opium in China. While no
07:43one is left to deny or confirm that claim, it is known that the Sassoon family was big
07:48in international trading and often did business with China during the fall of the Qing dynasty.
07:53Does that mean the Cholmondeleys currently benefit from the possession of stolen goods?
07:57Maybe, maybe not, but it seems we may never know for sure.
08:02It's hard to reconcile the image of David Cholmondeley lord and waiting to King Charles
08:06III with the image of David Rock Savage, film director and screenwriter. However, the
08:10Marquess is all of these things and more. Cholmondeley is an art aficionado, a Rachmaninoff
08:16conservatory-trained piano player, a jazz lover, and a movie maker. His first film,
08:21a small-budget 50-minute documentary on Eton, was promptly purchased by the BBC.
08:26One's basic memories of Eton is the fact that it was a school where you didn't have to conform."
08:33Since then, he has found a niche working on British and French documentaries. His one
08:37feature film, Other Voices, Other Rooms, was adapted from Truman Capote's novel of the
08:42same name and received critical praise when it opened in New York. A storyteller at heart,
08:47Cholmondeley's documentaries often center on the life experiences of older generations,
08:52usually revolving around his own family history. He told The New York Times,
08:56"...I like nostalgia and the passage of time."
08:59In light of all the rumors surrounding David Cholmondeley and his wife's connection to
09:02the Prince of Wales, one has to wonder, what's it like inside David Cholmondeley and Rose
09:07Hanbury's relationship? Some claim it's a marriage of convenience, citing David's unusual
09:12relationship with a controversial French photographer, François-Marie Bonnier. X has been abuzz
09:17with speculation surrounding their relationship, with one user posting,
09:21"...turns out Will's mistress, Rose Hanbury's husband, has been involved for years with
09:25François-Marie Bonnier. This could not get juicier."
09:28The gossip is compounded by the amount of time the Marquess allegedly spends with his
09:32friend versus that which he spends at home with his wife and children. One unnamed source
09:37heard from Hanbury's brother that the Marquess ran to Bonnier when the rumors about his wife's
09:41supposed affair began to surface. They told The Sun,
09:44"...Rose is up there in Norfolk in a nice stately pile. She's a pretty girl, and David
09:49is often a long way away in Paris or London."
09:52While no one knows what goes on behind the closed doors of Halton Hall, it's safe to
09:56say that these types of rumors on both sides could be devastating to any marriage.