On March 12th, Stephen Colbert did a three-minute segment in his opening monologue where he made some jokes about Prince William’s alleged affair with Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley. The rumors about William and Rose have been out there for five years, and when Colbert made the jokes, there was already a conversation about whether the palace was soft-launching Rose as the next Princess of Wales. In any case, Colbert’s jokes/comments were not received well in the UK as the palace furiously tried to force British outlets to edit any mention of the transcript and the specific jokes about William’s alleged affair. Someone complained to the Telegraph that Colbert and the Late Show did not “warn” the palace as well. Then, last week, Rose Hanbury apparently sent some kind of legal threat to CBS/Colbert. I assumed that she probably just wanted some kind of on-air apology, as opposed to Rose actually suing Colbert.
Well, Colbert sort of responded last night. He didn’t say anything about the royals during his opening monologue, but in the second segment, as he was seated at his desk, he made a statement about the Princess of Wales’s cancer diagnosis:
I mean, notice that he doesn’t mention Rose or William, nor did he apologize specifically for making jokes about any alleged affair. Colbert didn’t actually say “I’m sorry” or “I apologize” at any time – he just acknowledges that people took issue with the jokes and offered his sincere wishes that the Princess of Wales makes a full recovery. It was masterfully done, actually – he didn’t backtrack or disavow what he said previously, he’s just like (I’m paraphrasing) “I acknowledge that some of y’all didn’t like those jokes but I hope Kate is doing okay!” Well played.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Kensington Palace. Screencap courtesy of CBS.
KING’S LYNN, ENGLAND – JUNE 22: HRH Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge are greeted by Rose Cholmondeley, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley as they attend a gala dinner in support of East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices’ nook appeal at Houghton Hall on June 22, 2016 in King’s Lynn, England. 
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