Rose Hanbury instructed her lawyers to send legal notice to late night host Stephen Colbert after he joked about her alleged affair with Prince William on television.
Lawyers of the Marchioness of Cholmondeley said in a statement to In Touch Weekly: “The rumor appears to have entered into the mainstream media recently as a result of another joke made about it on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
“We have written on our client’s behalf to CBS and various other reputable media organisations to confirm that the allegation is false.”
The legal action comes after Colbert addressed ongoing conspiracy theories about William’s wife Kate Middleton’s whereabouts and alleged tensions between the couple.
He name-dropped the title of Rose Hanbury as the alleged mistress of the Prince of Wales, noting: “My heart goes out to poor Kate [Middleton].”
Rumours of affair between William and Rose reignited in the wake of the King-in-waiting’s cagey silence about Kate’s prolonged absence from the public eye after she underwent abdominal surgery in January.
Hanbury shut down the rumors in a statement to Business Insider last week, saying, “The rumors are completely false.”