Thomas Kingston passed away in February of this year. His passing came in the middle of a chaotic royal newscycle, including King Charles’s prostate procedure and then his cancer diagnosis and the Princess of Wales’s then-mysterious disappearance (and everything around that). Kingston died by “catastrophic wound to the head,” with a gun nearby. The initial inquest found that the most likely cause of death was self-inflicted gunshot to the head. Kingston was Lady Gabriella Windsor’s husband, and she has been deeply grieving ever since his passing. I kind of thought the inquest was all done and that everything had already been wrapped up, all nice and tidy and Windsor-approved. But no… they’re still investigating. Now they’re looking into what medications Kingston was taking just before his death.
The inquest into the death of Thomas Kingston, husband of Lady Gabriella Kingston, will look at whether his “state of mind was affected by medication”.
Kingston, 45, who married the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent in 2019, died in an outbuilding of his parents’ home in the Cotswolds with “catastrophic” head injuries and a gun left next to his body on February 25 this year. On Tuesday, in a pre-inquest review at Gloucestershire coroner’s court, Martin Porter KC said the family had been “advised that there could be a connection” between prescription medication he had taken and his state of mind.
Porter told the court: “The inquiry shouldn’t be limited to the final cause of death, which is clear and obvious.” He said it should include “Mr Kingston’s state of mind and whether that state of mind was affected by medication”.
Katy Skerrett, senior coroner for Gloucestershire, said the “recent prescription … should be part of the scope”, adding: “I agree with Mr Porter, however I do caveat strongly that whether a causative link will be established is a very different matter.”
Porter said Kingston’s death was “unexpected” and “impulsive”, adding: “There was no pre-planning. On the contrary there was planning for the future.”
Kingston was a director of Devonport Capital, which provides finance for companies in “frontier economies”. No date was fixed for the inquest but all parties have been asked for availability in early December.
This is what strikes me as well: “There was no pre-planning. On the contrary there was planning for the future.” He had just had lunch with his parents and gone for a walk at his parents’ estate. His father reportedly found his son in an out-building on the estate. A lot of people who lost friends by suicide say that they had no idea they were depressed and it’s hard to make sense of it. Maybe it was the medication?
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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- Windsor, United Kingdom. Lady Gabriella Windsor wedding. HM Queen Elizabeth II accompanied by other members of the royal family attend the wedding of Lady Gabriella Windsor and Mr Thomas Kingston at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.,Image: 512141853, 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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- 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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- Lady Gabriella Kingston and Thomas Kingston arrive at the Committal Service for Queen Elizabeth II held at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, Berkshire.,Image: 724207199, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: -, *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Victoria Jones / 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**
Mental illness is a doozy. There are medications that help, but with almost all of them, psychiatrists will warn you that your mental state can worsen for weeks before you notice improvement. Each person, depending on their genetics, reacts differently to different medications and also, sometimes the meds can stop working. Suicide is deeply tragic for the person suffering from depression and their loved ones. I’m just not sure what an inquest into his medication will show. Also, and this is horrible, if he had made the decision to end his life, he might have appeared happier and more at peace.
I think the point you raise ML is so important- the relief that can come when someone deeply in pain has reached their decision to end it is real, I speak as someone who survived suicide and also volunteers on a crisis helpline. It’s more worrying when someone who was deeply distressed suddenly isn’t.
I work in a psychiatric clinic and the majority of attempts that I have seen, completed or unsuccessful, are impulsive acts. The “planning” type (including just leaving notes) is a lot smaller of a group than you would think.
An example:
A friend of mine had signed a new lease, gone out dancing with friends, had a ticket to a show the next day.
Later that night they went outside on the porch with a cigarette while the oven was preheating for a pizza, saw their gun and ended it with the pizza on the counter.
It is a very sad state of things and having firearms available the choice can be made in an instant.
This. We talk a lot about gun violence in the U.S. and how gun control could lessen murder rates, but no one seems to talk about the rates of firearm suicide. There are actually many more suicides by gun here than homicides by gun. I haven’t seen any study in comparison to countries where that almost irreversible method is so easily available when someone has an impulse to end their life.
My doctor wanted me to try Risperdal for some sleep, anxiety and depression. I’ve never been a suicidal person but within 2 days of starting this medication, I was planning. It took a lot of willpower just to recognize it and call my doctor and tell him I was stopping it immediately. It still was weeks until I felt normal again and bless him, my doctor talked to me every couple of days until I felt like I was out of it.
I totally believe it could have been medication.
Barbara, I’m so glad you’re still here! That is so scary.
Wow, 2 days is crazy. I heard about side effects, but it is still hard to imagine how quickly our minds can be affected by medication.
Shrink, here. Risperdal is *not* a first-line choice of medication for any of the indications you listed, even in combination. Unless there’s much more to your story, I recommend being evaluated by a different physician.
Something similar happened to me with a variety of birth control pills. Within 3 days I was fantasizing about driving my car off overpasses. I told my friend, who flipped out and told me to call my doctor. Unfortunately my doctor, instead of being empathetic, said that I’d get over it in 3 months. I said I wouldn’t make it that long if I stayed on them and hung up on him. I stopped taking the pills and never saw that doctor again. Within a couple of days the ideation went away. I still think about how *natural* the thoughts felt.
Really really sad for his family.
Regarding medication I can only speak from personal/friends experience, but coming off or skipping anti depressants can lead to a downward spiral very quickly if not careful. Even close friends had no idea what I was doing through until I told them. I’m lucky they helped me recover, also learnt a lot about how to manage my meds going forward!
Well, is this another case where the Royal Family is involved, someone you didn’t expect suddenly dies, and the investigation finally turns to the fact that this person was mentally ill and unpredictable?
Not necessarily. Other types of drugs have been suspected of being linked to cases of sudden and severe depression and suicidal thoughts. For example, Doxycycline, an antibiotic I’m sure many of us have taken.
A thought that never would have crossed my mind were it not for that weird line in one of the early reports, something like “Prince William was not involved.” I mean – I wouldn’t have thought that he was but now that someone wrote it I wonder.
When they say ‘catastrophic head injury ‘ and not to be graphic but do they mean he essentially left himself in a state where he blew his head or face off?
Unsurvivable?
In my experience working for the ADFS about 20 years ago, family and friends are never able to admit when a loved one might have been suicidal. They’ll tell you “sure, his wife left him and his kids hate him and he lost his job and his house burned down and his dog died, but I KNOW him and he would NEVER try to kill himself.” It’s such a tragic situation and it’s hard to accept that there might not have been anything you could have done to change it.
Or worse, the idea that there might have been something you could have done to change it…but you didn’t.
Speaking from experience, “What if” is…painful.
Why release these details publicly?
He was a private citizen, wasn’t he?
Life is tragic and cruel.
It can help people. My best friend killed herself recently after one antidepressant pill. Had we known, we would have never given it to her.
I do hope the coroner will also discuss the fact someone with mental health issues had access to a gun.
Sad answer could be he broke into the gun cabinet or bribed a servant. (Idk if it’s true, but I read the reason why they started a physical search for him within the property is they realized both him and a firearm were missing).
His family might have not even known he was in such pain, or even himself caved into the first impulse after a long time of having suppressed them. He’s said to have been treated for ptsd
after a terrible experience at war, and perhaps something triggered it years after.
Some depression meds can take a severely depressed person and make them functional enough to enact the plan they’ve been making. One warning sign is giving things away and finalizing wills and other paperwork. Sometimes there is no sign. It’s heart-breaking that he succeeded.
I don’t trust the UK tabloids to be nuanced and thoughtful about mental illness AT ALL. Psychiatric diagnosis and medications are a lot of trial-and-error with long timelines and subjective results.
Maybe he was prescribed meds and wasn’t taking them. Maybe he was taking them and got functional enough to do what he was always going to do? Maybe the meds were all wrong? Maybe the ideation was a side effect of meds that had nothing to do with mental health?
I understand why families want someone or something to blame after a tragedy like this, but it’s never one thing.
Sometimes too, if someone has been severely depressed when they start medication, they begin to have a little more energy and consequently have more energy or drive to end it. That is often why it is so dangerous when someone starts a new medication. It is not enough coverage to feel 100% better but enough to act in a self-harming way. May his soul & his family know peace.
Ooof, this is hard. Any new medications (or changes in meds) absolutely could have played a part. But also, just because he had just had lunch for his parents and gone for a walk on the estate and was “planning for the future” does not mean he was not suicidal regardless of any new/changed medications.
i’m trying to be careful with my wording here but I think generally speaking it is very normal for families of loved ones who have died by suicide to try to find something else to blame – here, the medications. It absolutely could have been the medications. but just because the family didn’t see this coming doesn’t mean it HAD to be the medications. Mental health is very delicate sometimes and its usually not visible to outsiders what someone is going through.
My spouse reacts very badly to some medications; he takes meds for depression and anxiety, and the interactions with other drugs can be surprisingly strong. Common things that exacerbate his depression are vitamin D, statins, and cold medicines with dextromethorphan–and no doctor has ever mentioned those interactions, we had to find them out through horrible experience.
All that to say, it is 100% possible that a medication caused him to suddenly act out of character. I have seen it in my own home.
And I forgot to say, if Kingston was on a med for depression, just missing one dose could also cause a spiral. We have a rule in our house that if my spouse misses a dose of his meds by even a few hours, he HAS to tell me so I can prepare for the spiral that’s coming.
Depression is a bitch.
https://www.uchicagomedicine.org/forefront/research-and-discoveries-articles/2019/november/study-calculates-links-between-prescription-medications-and-risk-for-suicide
Also, as I mentioned above they are now looking at suspected links between Doxycycline and suicidality.
Interesting study! His body also reacts weirdly to things that have the opposite effect on others, like vitamin D worsening his depression when for most it HELPS with depression. He’s a weird one!
Remember that black box warning put on antidepressants because of increased suicidal ideation in teens? Well they just reported that the decreased use of antidepressants due to that warning and all the stories that antidepressants cause suicidal ideation has actually lead to an increase in suicide. The one thing people in the past, and “health news reporters” failed to consider is that correlation is not causation and that the actual root cause may be that: (a) physicians often prescribe antidepressants as the sole treatment and don’t refer patients for therapy with a licensed clinical therapist and/or (b) physicians do not explain how these meds work and set realistic expectations for patients so they understand (generally all you get is “it takes 2 weeks to start working”) so patients all too often except to feel happy/significantly better just from the medications alone without realizing that all other the underlying issues that snowballed are still there and they need to be addressed just as much as the serotonin balance does.
If he was on antidepressants, it is highly unlikely that they suddenly made him suicidal and are the cause of his death. As for “no pre-planning” the fact he wasn’t giving all is worldly goods away and acting all forlorn doesn’t mean he wasn’t pre-planning. He, absolutely, planned where and how he would do this as much as I did when I locked myself in the bathroom and started to fill the tub with warm water for one of my attempts. That is pre-planning. Finding a gun when you’ve decided you’re done and realizing “hey I can do this quick with this handy device” is impulsive without specific pre-planning but while the final trigger to just do it can lead to an impulsive decision to take action, that doesn’t happen in a vaccuum – even for people who do it impulsively due to something happening that they felt was catastrophic level trauma/pain
no. I have directly seen antidepressants cause suicide.
My friend was going through a hard time. She was finally coming out of it and had decided not to kill herself. She took her first lexapro, within 12 hours she was gone. She called me up on the phone that day, telling me how the antidepressant was making her feel (detached from the pain it would cause others, evil, maniacal, energetic, etc). It was 100% the lexapro. The dangers of these medications on unstable people should not be understated, and no it is not just teens.
As someone who’s known no less than three peple who comitted suicide within the first few months of starting anti-depressants, if true this breaks my heart. I’ve also known people who’ve comitted suicide without anti-depressants, but with alcohol involved (I come from a very traumatized family). Very few people in my experience actually commit suicide completely sober from alcohol, drugs and anti-depressant. It’s like the chemicals gice you an extra boost of confidence to finally “do” something about it. Also many people who’ve attempted suicide and survived (like jumping off a bridge) have reported immediately regretting it a second later, which is terrifying.
I wish there were better treatments out there.
I tried to end my life twice, I wasn’t on any meds and not one person would have seen it coming. When I made the decision to end my life, the depression lifted because ‘it was over’ so the week leading up to the 1st attempt I was happier than I had been for a long time, almost jovial. Had I been successful everyone would have been super shocked. The second attempt was a couple of days later, when I failed a 2nd time I sought help. I’m a grandmother now and life is good.
I’m so glad that you were able to get to the other side and that the grandkids are bringing you joy.
Remember, Chantix, the stop smoking drug, can cause suicidal thoughts. There are many medications for various different purposes that can cause suicidal ideation/thoughts. It’s not always the meds associated w/ mental health.
These medications change your brain chemistry to get you off the addiction or out of depression. I can see how it gets worse before it gets better.