The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the Sunday service at St Mary Magdalene church on Sunday, along with some of their closest friends. Kate turns 38 on Thursday and invited some of her closest companions to her country home Anmer Hall in Norfolk to kick off her early birthday celebrations. Among Prince William and his wife's guests were Rose Hanbury, the Marchioness of Cholmondeley and her husband David, the 7th Marquess of Cholomondeley.
Their friendship goes way back to when the couple attended William and Kate's wedding in 2011 and they even teamed up to host a gala dinner in support of East Anglia's Children's Hospices' nook appeal at David and Rose's home Houghton Hall, in King's Lynn, in 2016. The Marchioness also sat next to Prince Harry at the Spanish state dinner at Buckingham Palace in 2017 and attended the banquet the Queen hosted for US President Trump last year.
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© Photo: Getty ImagesThe Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley in Sandringham
David and Rose announced their engagement in June 2009; the next day it was revealed they were expecting and just a day later, they tied the knot. The couple have three children, ten-year-old twins Alexander, Earl of Rocksavage and Oliver, Lord Cholmondeley, and three-year-old daughter Lady Iris.
Former model Rose had a brief stint in parliament as a researcher for Conservative MP Michael Gove, but during her time in front of the camera, she was shot by Storm Models – the agency that discovered Kate Moss.
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© Photo: Getty ImagesRose is a former model
And it appears Rose's royal connections date back further than her friendship with William and Kate. Her paternal grandmother Lady Rose Lambert was a bridesmaid at the Queen's wedding to Prince Philip in 1947. The Marchioness lives with her husband and children at the Palladian Houghton Hall in Norfolk, just over three miles away from Kate and William's country home Anmer Hall. David, 59, inherited an estimated £112million estate in 1990, which includes Cholmondeley Castle in Cheshire.
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