Stephen Colbert Finally Addresses His Crass Joke About Kate Middleton, Prince William, and Rose Hanbury—But Stops Short of Apologizing

Two weeks after leveling a crude joke at the Princess of Wales’ expense about her husband Prince William’s nonexistent affair with family friend Rose Hanbury, The Late Show host Stephen Colbert has addressed the matter—while still stopping short of apologizing—following Kate’s announcement that she has been diagnosed with cancer and amid outcry to do so from the public.

Speaking on his show, Colbert issued an apology of sorts: “You know, folks, I don’t know if you have noticed, but we do a lot of shows and I tell a lot of jokes, and I tell jokes about a lot of different things, mostly what everybody’s talking about,” he said. “And for the last six weeks to two months, everybody has been talking about the mystery of Kate Middleton’s disappearance from public life. And two weeks ago, we did some jokes about that mystery and all of the reporting about that. And when I made those jokes, that upset some people and—even before her diagnosis was revealed, and I can understand that. I mean, a lot of my jokes have upset people in the past. And I’m sure some of my jokes will upset people in the future. But there is a standard that I try to hold myself to. And that is, I do not make light of somebody else’s tragedy.”

Colbert added “I don’t know whether her prognosis is a tragic one,” noting that Kate is the future Queen of England and will be getting the best care possible. “Regardless of what it is,” he said, Colbert said he knows “that any cancer diagnosis is harrowing for the patient and for the family.” He concluded “And though I’m sure they don’t need it from me, I and everyone here at The Late Show would like to extend our well-wishes and heartfelt hope that her recovery is swift and thorough.”

Colbert’s joke on March 12—which will not be reprinted here—brought the near-dead Hanbury rumors back to the fore after they had all but disappeared. Even before Kate’s announcement of her health condition Friday, Hanbury’s legal team threatened legal action against Colbert, writing in a statement “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 organizations to confirm that the allegation is false.”

Hanbury herself also spoke out against the rumors for the first time since its origin in 2019, telling Business Insider this month that any and all allegations of an affair with William “are completely false.”