Drugs prescribed by Palace surgery pushed my upbeat husband to take his life, says Lady Gabriella Windsor
A TEARFUL Lady Gabriella Windsor today blamed drugs prescribed by Buckingham Palace’s surgery for her husband taking his own life.
The daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent was giving evidence at the inquest of Thomas Kingston, 45, who she married in 2019.
He was found with a shotgun wound to his head in a bathroom at his parent’s Cotswolds home by his father Martin on February 25.
The retired barrister wept as he told of shouting his son’s name and breaking open a door with a crowbar to find him lying on top of the firearm, which he had lent him to go shooting.
In a statement read out for her at the Gloucester inquest, Lady Gabriella said she exchanged “upbeat messages” with her husband the morning he died.
She said she believed a cocktail of sertraline antidepressant drugs and zopiclone sleeping tablets had caused him to kill himself.
She added: “Tom had never expressed suicidal thoughts to me.
“I believe Tom’s action was an adverse reaction to the medication he had been taking in the last two weeks of his life.
“It seems highly likely to me he had an adverse reaction to the pills. There was no stress I was aware of that could have pushed him to take his own life.
“If anything had been troubling him, I’m positive he would have shared it with me.
“The fact he took his life at the home of his beloved parents, where only they would find him, suggests to me it was the decision of a sudden impulse sparked by seeing the gun.”
His father said of his son, it was like “a switch had been turned in his mind”.
Mr Kingston, who married Lady Gabriella in front of the late Queen and Prince Philip at Windsor Castle, was taking the medication because of trouble sleeping and stress at work.
He was previously a hostage negotiator in Iraq, but later became a financial analyst and company director.
The drugs were prescribed by the Apothecary to the Royal Household, Dr Nicky Morgan Naunton, of Royal Mews Surgery.
The family’s lawyer, Martin Porter, said they did not blame the medic, who was “acting as good doctors do”, but wanted to warn others about antidepressant risks.
Medical expert, psychopharmacologist Dr David Healy, told the inquest the drugs Mr Kingston was taking “can have a fairly dramatic and catastrophic effect in a short space of time”.
He said: “Regulators have shied away from saying even healthy volunteers put on these pills have gone on to commit suicide.”
He said the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors need to come with a “more explicit statement saying these drugs can cause people to commit suicide”.
In a narrative verdict, Gloucestershire Coroner Katy Skerrett said Mr Kingston had taken his own life.
She will write to the relevant medical authorities to raise concerns about the risk of suicide connected to SSRIs.
You're Not Alone
EVERY 90 minutes in the UK a life is lost to suicide
It doesn’t discriminate, touching the lives of people in every corner of society – from the homeless and unemployed to builders and doctors, reality stars and footballers.
It’s the biggest killer of people under the age of 35, more deadly than cancer and car crashes.
And men are three times more likely to take their own life than women.
Yet it’s rarely spoken of, a taboo that threatens to continue its deadly rampage unless we all stop and take notice, now.
That is why The Sun launched the You’re Not Alone campaign.
The aim is that by sharing practical advice, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers people face when talking about their mental health, we can all do our bit to help save lives.
Let’s all vow to ask for help when we need it, and listen out for others… You’re Not Alone.
If you, or anyone you know, needs help dealing with mental health problems, the following organisations provide support:
- CALM, www.thecalmzone.net, 0800 585 858
- Heads Together,www.headstogether.org.uk
- HUMEN www.wearehumen.org
- Mind, www.mind.org.uk, 0300 123 3393
- Papyrus, www.papyrus-uk.org, 0800 068 41 41
- Samaritans,www.samaritans.org, 116 123