Five years ago, almost exactly, The Sun published Dan Wootton’s now-infamous “rural rival” story, in which he left enough breadcrumbs to indicate that Kate Middleton, then the Duchess of Cambridge, was trying to “phase out” Norfolk aristocrat Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. It was left unsaid why Kate had such a bug up her bum about Rose, but of course people quickly learned the gossip ripping its way through the posh set and the Norfolk aristocratic circles: Prince William and Rose were allegedly engaged in a torrid affair, and when Kate found out, she got mad and tried to push Rose out of their social circle. The thing is, Rose can’t be pushed out – she’s married to David Rocksavage, who was at the time the Lord Great Chamberlain, a hereditary role which meant he and Rose attended all of the fanciest royal events. When King Charles became king, he appointed Rocksavage as his lord-in-waiting too.

There’s a long, dirty history here, which we’ve covered extensively for years – go here to see our Rose Hanbury archives. (Note by CB: You can also get the top stories about Prince William’s affair when you sign up for our mailing list!) For what it’s worth, Kate and Rose have seemingly buried the hatchet and they still socialize with each other, and I’ve even gotten the impression that Rose has pity for Kate. Rose and David are still welcome in the highest echelons of British society, and they attended last year’s coronation. I also believe that Rose and William’s alleged affair was probably over a while ago. But! Given all of the weirdness around Kate and William this year, the Rose story has cropped up once again. The Independent did a weird side chick soft-launch of “who is the Marchioness of Cholmondeley” this week, and Twitter is ablaze with speculation, gossip history and deeply funny tweets about Rose. What I didn’t expect was Stephen Colbert devoting a segment to Rose and the affair rumors on his show last night, I’ve queued it the relevant part:

You guys… it’s mainstream. It’s super-mainstream. This isn’t some random internet gossip which can be shut down with legal threats from Kensington Palace. This is American network television!

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.