The daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Lady Gabriella Kingston, said her husband died after making a “sudden impulse” decision to take his own life after suffering an adverse reaction to a prescription medication.
Thomas Kingston, 45, died from a gunshot wound to the head at his beloved parents’ home. in the Cotswolds on February 25.
The financier married Lady Gabriella at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in 2019 with the Queen and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, among the guests.
At an inquest into his death held at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, Lady Gabriella, 43, said people needed to be warned about the effects of drugs used to treat mental illness or more people could die.
He had initially been given sertraline, an antidepressant, and zopiclone, a sleeping pill, by a GP at the Royal Mews Surgery, a practice used by royal household staff, after complaining of problems sleeping due to stress in the work.
In a statement read out at the inquest by coroner Katy Skerrett, Lady Gabriella said: “(The work) was certainly a challenge for him over the years, but I highly doubt it would have led him to take his life, and it seemed a lot improved.
‘If anything had worried him, I’m sure he would have shared that he was struggling badly. The fact that he took his life in the home of his beloved parents suggests that the decision was the result of a sudden impulse.
He said he believed her death was “probably caused” by an adverse reaction to medication she had started and subsequently stopped taking in the weeks before her death.
Thomas Kingston (left) died from a head injury caused by a gunshot wound, a coroner has found.
Kingston (pictured), husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor, took his own life after an adverse effect from a prescription medication, an inquest hears
Kingston watched the race alongside Queen Camilla from the royal box at Ascot in June 2023.
Kingston complained that the medication was not making him feel better, and his doctor switched him from sertraline to citalopram, another selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) used as an antidepressant.
“In the absence of evidence of inclination, it seems very likely to me that he had an adverse reaction to the pills which led him to take his life,” Lady Gabriella said.
“I think anyone taking pills like these should be more aware of the side effects to avoid future deaths.
“If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.”
In the days before his death, Kingston had stopped taking medications and toxicology tests showed caffeine and small amounts of zopiclone in his system.
In his final weeks, Lady Gabriella said, her husband had “seemed normal”, except early in the day after taking zopiclone, which she said made him appear “almost hungover”.
In her statement, she described their marriage as “deeply loving and trusting” and said he had never expressed any suicidal thoughts to her or others.
He added that he had been deeply affected by the suicide of a friend and the “devastating impact it had on other people’s loved ones”.
Lady Gabriella cried as she sat in the coroner’s court as her statement was read.
The pair appear here at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in July 2019.
Lady Gabriella and Thomas Kingston took official photos on their wedding day; here with the late Queen and Prince Philip seated to his right.
Thomas Kingston and Lady Gabriella Kingston courtside on the second day of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships last year.
Kingston’s father, William Martin Kingston, broke down in tears as he described finding his son in the locked bathroom of a separate annex, having used a crowbar to break down the door.
He told the court that his son had always had a strong and resilient character, having previously suffered pain that left him needing help climbing stairs.
Kingston added that before his son’s death there appeared to have been no search for suicide and no will or note was left, describing the method as “very irregular”, which was simply “out of character”.
Writing a narrative conclusion, Mrs Skerrett, Gloucestershire’s chief coroner, said: “Mr Kingston took his own life with a shotgun which caused a serious traumatic injury to the head.”
‘Evidence from his wife, family and business partner supports his lack of suicidal intent. He was suffering adverse effects from the medication he had recently been prescribed.’
Dr David Healy, a psychiatric medical expert who gave evidence at the hearing, said zopiclone could also cause anxiety, while sertraline and citalopram were selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and essentially the same thing.
Dr Healy said Mr Kingston’s complaints that sertraline continued to cause anxiety were a sign that SSRIs were “not right for him” and that he should not have been prescribed the same thing again.
He said SSRI guidelines and labels were not clear enough about using these drugs in the first place, or what the effect might be when switching from one to another.
“We need a much more explicit statement that these medications can cause people to commit suicide who otherwise would not have done so,” he said.
Addressing the coroner, Martin Porter, solicitor for the family, said: “The family does not blame (their GP) Dr Naunton Morgan, she was acting as good doctors do.”
“But the question is whether doctors get enough advice about SSRIs.”
Queen Camilla, King Charles III, Lady Gabriella Windsor and Thomas Kingston watch the races from the Royal Box as they attend day 5 of Royal Ascot 2023.
Lady Gabriella paid tribute to her husband in a joint statement with his family following his death, describing him as an “exceptional man who illuminated the lives of all who knew him”.
They described his death as “a huge shock to the whole family.”
The King and Queen sent their “deepest thoughts and prayers” to Lady Gabriella, known as Ella, and Mr Kingston’s parents and siblings.
Kingston was buried in a private service on March 12.
Around 140 close friends and family, including Prince William, Lady Gabriella’s parents, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, and Princess Alexandra, gathered at the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace in London for the funeral.
Lady Gabriella is the king’s second cousin. They are both great-grandsons of King George V.
Mr Kingston was a director of Devonport Capital, which specializes in providing finance to companies in “frontier economies”.
The Bristol University graduate also worked in Baghdad, Iraq, to secure the release of hostages after joining the Foreign Office’s diplomatic missions unit.
At the opening of the inquest in March, Gloucestershire’s chief coroner, Katy Skerrett, said Kingston’s body was found in an outbuilding of his parents’ home.
The coroner said Mr Kingston had been visiting his parents and, after lunch, his father had gone out to walk the dogs.
“Upon his return, Mr. Kingston was not at home,” she said, “and after approximately 30 minutes his mother went to look for him.”
“His father forced his way into a locked outbuilding when he couldn’t get a response.”
For free and confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit www.thecalmzone.net/get-support