Lady Gabriella Windsor, the second cousin of King Charles III, has broken her silence on husband Thomas Kingston’s death in February this year from a “traumatic wound to the head,” telling the inquest at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, Dec. 3, that he died by suicide.
Senior coroner for Gloucestershire Katy Skerrett concluded that the 45-year-old died from a self-inflicted wound despite “evidence of his wife, family and business partner all supports his lack of suicidal intent.” Skerrett said as quoted by The Guardian: “He was suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed” by a Buckingham Palace doctor.
Lady Gabriella, 43, the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, blamed the anxiety medication Kingston was taking for what she believes to be an “impulsive action” because as far as she could remember, he never had any suicidal thoughts. She said they had a “deeply loving and trusting” relationship and was even affected by the suicide of a friend and its devastating impact on the loved ones left behind.
“If anything had been troubling him, I’m positive that he would have shared that he was struggling severely. The fact that he took his life at the home of his beloved parents suggests the decision was the result of a sudden impulse,” she said.
She revealed that Kingston had complained of trouble sleeping and anxiety because of stress from work and was initially prescribed the anti-depressant sertraline and the sleeping tablet zopiclone, by a doctor at the Royal Mews surgery, a GP practice in Buckingham Palace that caters to royal household staff.
“(Work) was certainly a challenge for him over the years but I highly doubt it would have led him to take his own life, and it seemed much improved,” Lady Gabriela shared. But when those two medications didn’t work, he was moved from sertraline to citalopram, another antidepressant.
She said her husband had stopped taking his medication altogether in the weeks leading up to his death and toxicology tests also showed caffeine and small amounts of zopiclone in his system. She believes his untimely passing may have been “likely provoked” by an adverse reaction to the medicine. Lady Gabriella said the public needed to be warned about this to avoid similar tragedies from happening.
The lack of any evidence of inclination – it seems highly likely to me that he had an adverse reaction to the pills that led him to take his life. I believe anyone taking pills such as these need to be made more aware of the side-effects to prevent any future deaths. If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.”
The financier was found dead at his parents’ home in the Cotswolds with a shotgun next to his body on Feb. 25. His distraught father, Martin Kingston, said it “cannot be a coincidence” that his son died only three weeks after taking new medication. In disbelief, he said Thomas’ actions were “entirely and fundamentally out of character” because he “was a mature, well-adjusted, emotionally stable and mentally robust man” who had “handled mentally challenging and difficult situations in the past.” Since her husband’s passing, Lady Gabriella has moved back in with her parents at Kensington Palace.
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Published: Dec 4, 2024 10:18 am