As we learned on Tuesday, Thomas Kingston passed away last Sunday. Kingston was married to Lady Gabriella Windsor, daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent. The British and American press is making a big deal about how Kingston also dated Pippa Middleton, but that was years ago – Kingston was with Gabriella for several years before their 2019 wedding. Kingston’s passing raised some alarm bells for me – he was only 45 years old, and people were going overboard about how there is “nothing suspicious” about his death. There will be an inquest, but one mystery has already been solved. The papers kept saying that Kingston was found at “a Gloucestershire address,” like they were making a point of saying that he was not at his home. The Mail reports exclusively that Kingston was discovered at his parents’ home:
Thomas Kingston, husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor, died at his parents £3million country mansion in Gloucestershire, MailOnline has learned. Paramedics were called to the large, detached home at around 6pm on Sunday. Police also attended the property where the 45-year-old former hostage negotiator and financier’s parents Martin and Jill Kingston have lived since 1996.
A spokesman for Gloucester Ambulance Service said they had attended a private residence. The spokesman said: ‘Gloucester Police have confirmed ambulance from Gloucester Ambulance Service attended a private residence.’
Martin Kingston KC is a well-known planning law barrister while his wife is a trustee of the Nadezhda Charitable Trust. The 71-year-old had been heavily involved in work relating to Ukraine and has also run conferences for women in Ethiopia. Mr Kingston, 74, was elected to the National Synod in 2016.
Everyone who saw Thomas and Ella in the weeks before his death can’t stop talking about how Ella and Tom seemed super-normal and happy.
Lady Gabriella Windsor and her husband Thomas Kingston were ‘happy and chatty’ at a National Gallery event just days before his shock death aged 45, close friends have revealed. The sudden death of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s son-in-law has left the Royal Family and friends in a state of deep shock. The financier and former hostage negotiator was found dead at an address in Gloucestershire on Sunday evening, with emergency services called to the scene shortly after 6pm. An inquest will be held but there are no suspicious circumstances and no other parties involved.
One friend who spoke to the couple at a party last Wednesday at the National Gallery in London said: ‘They seemed happy and positive as ever. Ella was particularly chatty.’
Another close friend, who attended the couple’s stunning wedding, added: ‘It’s utterly shocking. None of us saw it coming. I cannot understand it.’
Gloucestershire Constabulary said it was called by the ambulance service about the death of Mr Kingston at 6.25pm on Sunday. They added: ‘The death is not being treated as suspicious and a file will be prepared for the coroner.’
I’ve seen a lot of theories but I really have no idea. Reportedly, the inquest will be held tomorrow and that’s where Kingston’s cause of death will be confirmed by the coroner. They completed an autopsy already??
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- WINDSOR, ENGLAND – MAY 18: Newlyweds Mr Thomas Kingston and Lady Gabriella Windsor on the steps of the chapel after their wedding at St George’s Chapel on May 18, 2019 in Windsor, England.,Image: 512141822, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NO UK USE FOR SEVEN DAYS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: – / Avalon
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- St Paul’s Cathedral, London, UK. 3 June 2022. The National Service of Thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral, part of Platinum Jubilee Celebrations for The Queen’s reign. Leaving the service (left to right): Lord Frederick Windsor and Sophie Winkleman, Lady Gabriella and Thomas Kingston,Image: 696890237, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: MALCOLM PARK / Avalon
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- Camera Press Rota 04335413. Lady Gabriella and Thomas Kingston at Westminster Hall for the lying in State of The Late HM Queen Elizabeth II,Image: 722705363, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Camera Press Rota, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Mark Stewart / Avalon
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- Gabriella Windsor and Husband Thomas Kingston Celebrate Lady Rothermere`s Birthday At La Loma Featuring: Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 08 Aug 2022 Credit: Blitz Pictures/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North/South America and Australia Rights Only**
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- Gabriella Windsor and Husband Thomas Kingston Celebrate Lady Rothermere`s Birthday At La Loma Featuring: Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 08 Aug 2022 Credit: Blitz Pictures/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North/South America and Australia Rights Only**
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- File photo dated 18/05/19 of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston leaving St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, following their wedding. Thomas Kingston, the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston, has died, Buckingham Palace has announced Featuring: Thomas Kingston, Lady Gabriella Windsor Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Feb 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- File photo dated 18/05/19 of Thomas Kingston and Lady Gabriella Windsor on the steps of the chapel after their wedding at St George’s Chapel in Windsor. Thomas Kingston, the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston, has died, Buckingham Palace has announced Featuring: Thomas Kingston, Lady Gabriella Windsor Where: London, United Kingdom When: 27 Feb 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- NEWS EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO COMMERCIAL USE. NO MERCHANDISING, ADVERTISING, SOUVENIRS, MEMORABILIA or COLOURABLY SIMILAR. NOT FOR USE AFTER 18 OCTOBER 2019 WITHOUT PRIOR PERMISSION FROM BUCKINGHAM PALACE. NO CROPPING. Copyright in the photograph is vested in Alexandra Diez de Rivera. Publications are asked to credit the photographs to Alexandra Diez de Rivera. The photograph must not be digitally enhanced, manipulated or modified in any manner or form. This handout photograph issued by Buckingham Palace shows Lady Gabriella Windsor and her fiancee Mr Thomas Kingston after the announcement of their engagement.
So Putin gave Kingston’s father-in-law a medal and meanwhile his own father is working for Ukraine? And he was a hostage negotiatior??
Yea, this is a totally unsuspicious and routine death, nothing to see here!
That’s a very quick inquest! Which is too quick if an actual investigation was needed. It’s most likely suicide with a note. An accidental OD would take longer.
Yes that’s what I think. Ending his own life without drugs would be a quick inquest. Someone on Twitter was trying to say Will was partying with him and Tom OD and that’s why there’s been this weirdness, but the shock at how happy and normal they seemed points to ending himself.
What about a fall? Did the report say anything about it being a strictly medical condition?
Hi, reader from England here 👋
So I believe this part of the inquest will be a very short sitting, where basically the coroner will outline all the details (name, address, DOB). They may provide a cause of death if they have one. Even if they do have one – the case will then be referred to a further inquest, normally within the next year. That’s where the full facts and investigation into the case is heard by the coroner. It’s at this hearing where the coroner decides if it was natural causes, accidental death, suicide, open verdict etc.
The processes we have in the UK can be a bit complex! But hopefully this helps with some of the timeline 🙂
Thanks for outlining this. It makes much more sense now.
MargaretG, but if there are no suspicions about the death, would an investigation be necessary? I think an autopsy (if needed) would be to confirm. I’m American, so I don’t understand the laws int he UK. It just seems unnecessary to have an investigation.
@Saucy&Sassy — I don’t know about the UK but in Canada if a person dies at home who hasn’t any pre-existing medical condition there has to be a coroner’s inquest and autopsy done to determine cause, time, and question anyone who may have been with the deceased at the time or just prior.
@Saucy&Sassy I’m an Australian lawyer who has done some work in this area (our legal system is based on and similar to the UK) and here there is an automatic referral to a coroner where there is a suicide. Mostly they are straightforward (although I represented a party to an inquest into the suicide death of a minor under the care of our version of child services, which was fking awful).
“Not suspicious” plus “inquest” immediately to me signals obvious suicide (gsw or asphyxiation).
Was it necessary to add in the value of the parents home? So tacky DM, so very very tacky. They have just lost their son, Gabriella has lost her husband, but DM has to make the value of their home a lead part of the story? I suppose DM are sad they couldn’t include how many toilets the house has? Show some decorum please?
I find it so offensive and unnecessary when they do that.
So tasteless. Stay klassy, DM.
I think he had a heart attack.
Me too. My under-50 sibling had one yesterday (they’re fine, thank all the everything). Athletic, seemed in shape, etc etc. It does indeed happen.
If that was the case, the inquest wouldn’t be closed tomorrow.
The coroner’s office takes a few weeks to do the autopsy and necessary documentation. To me it seems suicide, unfortunately. 😔
I don’t think the inquest will be closed – instead it’ll be “formally adjourned” while all the info is gathered. There won’t be a verdict for a while, usually months, sometimes even longer.
That wouldn’t necessarily indicate a referral for an inquest. In this context, the “coroner” is like a judge who presides over a hearing (legal process) into the cause of death. Not the person doing the autopsy and determining the cause of death from a medical perspective.
My opinion is it’s a suicide and that’s obvious based on how he was found (gsw or asphyxiation, not randomly unresponsive with no sign of cause). Heart attack would not be described as “not suspicious” (neither would be intoxication).
(I’m an Aussie lawyer – our system is based on the UK system, and I’ve worked in this area)
Having seen four unexpected deaths (two brain haemorrages, a seizure caused by a massive allergic reaction and a heart attack) of healthy people of Mr. Kingston’s age, I still see nothing suspicious here.
I’m the same age as Thomas and it’s humbling to realize that those things we always assumed happen to “middle aged people” are now happening to us, because this is middle age. Sudden cardiac events are a big one among people I know who partied hard (esp cocaine) when they were younger.
Same, Grace.
My brother died of a massive heart attack in his 40s. Unfortunately, it happens all too frequently, especially when people are working or living in high stress situations.
I’m so sorry, Barbara.
What I see as suspicious it’s the wording of some statements released by relatives and friends, one doesn’t need to point out how happy he seemed and how they cannot understand it.
Dying of a heart attack or stroke at any age might be unexpected but it’s perfectly possible. Lost 2 friends in their 20ies to heart problems.
Also, this reminds me that there was a blind not long ago that a non-working royal couple who was going to split. Hmmm. Though I suspect the royal family will never divulge what truly happened here. They will be the last to admit someone amongst them was desperately unhappy. And it messes with their notion of ‘anointed by god’.
Olivia, Great point. I had forgotten about that.
The prince and princess of albania announced a split a month ago.
The “they were so happy” and “we cannot understand it” certainly sound like thinly veiled references to suicide to me. A friend who thankfully survived his attempt once told me that during the week or so beforehand, when he had finally resolved to go through with it, he was the happiest he’d been since childhood. Given Mr. Kingston’s experience in Iraq, perhaps there were some unresolved or untreated issues with PTSD? Whatever happened, how devastating for Lady Gabriella and his family.
Yes i’ve heard of this as well, like the relief they feel lifts a weight of their shoulders. Also sadly it happened to a colleague and they’d wrapped up their projects and admin on the Friday and died at the weekend, so awful.
Thank you, Miranda. First off, some people are excellent at masking. Next, if someone is in a bad way and they make this decision, they can feel more positive like you said. Plus PTSD is absolutely possible. Watch out if someone you know starts giving away their possessions as well. I agree that it’s awful to lose someone so young so suddenly.
It’s a known risk that when a patient starts medication therapy – typically with the SSRI/SNRI – there is just that reaction. They feel great – great enough to end their life. I know of two cases among friends/acquaintances. Sad
I still think he died with Pegs, at Club H at Highgrove. I don’t trust a word these people say. Because if he was at his parents’ house, why didn’t they say that from the start? Everything that has been going on in that family recently – from not naming Chuckles’s type of cancer to Keen’s complete disappearance from the face of the earth to the reasons Pegs is unable to stand still for 30 seconds or work for 4 months – is full of lies, omissions and coverups.
Where is Keen? Where is Pegs? What is really going on?!
Maybe his parents didn’t want curious outsiders and photographers at their doorstep. I can understand that very well.
Then why name the location a day later? The death happened days ago so what difference would it have made to disclose the location yesterday or today?
And why was every single rota rat insisting (when nobody was asking) that the death was NOT why Pegs was bailing on his godfather’s memorial?
Was the location ever really disclosed by his family or was it leaked by someone who attended the scene? I wouldn’t have been surprised if someone tipped about it for money when contacted by the press. I’ve seen that happening, e.g. someone I know used to work in a District Court as a secretary and regularly contacted the press about custody battles and divorces of different celebs etc., and the money she made that way was enough to finance a six-month road trip in Australia.
Why would William still go to “Club H” at his father’s estate instead of all of his own properties? Harry and William partied at Club H when they were teenagers and in college and they didn’t have their own houses/estates to party in. Or William could just go to his friend’s houses. With all the scrutiny on William right now, it would be truly bizarre if he decided to go party at his dad’s house where the servants/staff could easily fill in Charles or Charles staff that William was on a bender there.
Highgrove belongs to the Duchy of Cornwall and is not Charle’s house anymore. From what I understand, Charles ‘leases’ it occasionally, but it’s not his estate.
Not that I believe Club H has been resurrected, but Highgrove would be a more discreet place for Will to party than one of his own homes (or the home a friend) since it’s his/but not really his (like an airbnb).
@,Sussexwatcher
Yep I agree, something is suspicious with the time line
“Nothing suspicious ” means that murder is not suspected as the cause of death. The death of a 45 year old can be unexpected, but it’s not always suspicious.
My condolences to Ella and his parents. I suspect massive heart attack — men in their 40s still think they are younger and dont need to be checked.
On another note: Ella and Zara Tindall could be twins. Those Windsor genes are strong.
Yes the speculation has been running amok on twitter with this one. Many theories no answers. I’m of the belief it may have been suicide or maybe an overdose but it could something completely different. Time may tell.
My friend/coworker’s 46 year old husband dropped dead of a massive heart attack while on his treadmill last year – he was a lifelong runner. Then, the day after his funeral, my own 47 year old brother had a cardiac event while shoveling snow and only survived because my 16 year old niece insisted on calling an ambulance. While I don’t know what happened in this case, now when I hear of a man in his 40s or 50s dying suddenly, my first thought is heart problems.
Same here.
I was initially thinking it was a suicide, but it would be kind of weird, and traumatic for the parents, for him to take his life in their house. I mean, it’s traumatic regardless, but if he had to do it, wouldn’t he rather it be away from them?
Why would William still go to “Club H” at his father’s estate instead of all of his own properties? Harry and William partied at Club H when they were teenagers and in college and they didn’t have their own houses/estates to party in. Or William could just go to his friend’s houses. With all the scrutiny on William right now, it would be truly bizarre if he decided to go party at his dad’s house where the servants/staff could easily fill in Charles or Charles staff that William was on a bender there.
I hate that they get the house price in.
Agree with others above that the references to happiness in weeks prior etc. hint to this having been suicide.
I remember when I was much younger and working several jobs that at one of my jobs which was to clean rental and luxury residence beach houses that one of the clients’ husbands had killed himself by hanging himself from one of the wooden exposed beams in the vaulted ceiling. He was a second generation family dentist and they had two small boys, practically babies. His wife found him. He had left a note. The family continued living there after. I remember being in that house and could not stop looking at the rafters. His wife was understandably a mess trying to keep it all together and had thrown herself into work and micromanaging the “help” to distract herself. I kept wondering what he was like. Turns out he was in a ton of debt and couldn’t find a way out.
My guess is natural causes. I know we are in conspiracy mode with everything going on with Kate and Charles but I would hope he wouldn’t choose to end his life at his parents’ house. We’ll find out soon enough. Many people have heart conditions that go undetected until they die.
My cousin’s husband who was in his mid-fifties and very healthy died after a series of strokes. Despite being physically fit it appears he had a congenital weakness in one of the veins in his brain and it finally blew. It happens.
45 is too young to die. My father died at that same age. This endless speculation of how died must be painful for the family. He will miss so much. There will be people he will never meet, babies he will never hold, places he will never go, things he will never get to do. So much life lost. My heart goes out to his wife and family.
” £3million country mansion in Gloucestershire…”
Is it REALLY a mansion if the number of bathrooms aren’t mentioned?
I saw a clickbait headline that named him as Pippa Middleton’s ex and it aggravated me so much.
COVID has been strongly associated with a higher rate of cardiovascular events, both heart attack and stroke, among survivors of even “mild” acute infection — including in young and middle-aged adults. There’s really no need for dire suspicion when these serious events can happen even without infection by the virus.
It’s possible that the papers are emphasizing how happy the couple appeared recently in order to make an awful situation seem even more awful than it is and keep this royal news front-and-center of other royal news.
I worked in a large cardiology practice – we had a physician who, like his father and dad were docs and fastidious about diet and exercise. His brother passed away on a treadmill with a sudden widow maker heart attack. I am sorry for their family, but sometimes it happens and when it’s so shocking it can be hard to function let alone pull together a good PR effort.
He committed suicide– shot himself in the head. How awful!!! He must have been going through so much mental pain and anguish. So sorry for him and his family.