Lady Gabriella’s husband Thomas Kingston took his own life after ‘adverse reaction to antidepressants’

Thomas Kingston, the husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor, took his own life in an ‘impulsive’ decision after being prescribed a cocktail of antidepressants and sleeping drugs, an inquest heard.

The financier, 45, who became part of the royal family following his marriage to Lady Gabriella in 2019, was found dead at his parent’s home on February 25 with a ‘catastrophic head wound’ and a gun lying nearby.

Following an inquest into his death at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court on Tuesday, it was found he had suffered an adverse reaction to medication prescribed to him by a royal doctor in the weeks before his death.

Kingston, the son-in-law of Prince Michael of Kent, had been given sertraline, a drug used to treat depression, and zopiclone, a sleeping tablet, by a GP after complaining of trouble sleeping following stress at work.

After he stopped taking the sertraline because it made him feel ‘very anxious’, Kingston was instead prescribed diazepam and citalopram, and had his sleep medication doubled.

He was found dead a short time later, with an adverse reaction to the medication believed to have triggered a ‘sudden impulse’ which led him to take his life.

Recording a narrative conclusion, senior coroner Katy Skerrett said: ‘Mr Kingston took his own life … The evidence of his wife, family and business partner all supports his lack of suicidal intent. He was suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed.’

Reading a statement on behalf of Lady Gabriella, the coroner continued: ‘(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.

‘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.’

Lady Gabriella, who sobbed throughout the hearing, described her marriage as ‘deeply loving and trusting’ and said her husband had never expressed any suicidal thoughts to her or others prior to his death.

‘I believe anyone taking pills such as these need to be made more aware of the side-effects to prevent any future deaths,’ she added.

‘If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.’

Mr Kingston’s father, William Martin Kingston, broke down in tears as he described finding his son in the locked bathroom of a detached annexe, after using a crowbar to break down the door.

Both father and son were licensed gun owners, the court heard. Kingston’s body was found alongside one of his father’s guns, which he had borrowed over the weekend to go hunting.

Kingston Sr told the coroner there did not appear to have been any searches for suicide in the days before his son’s death, and that no note or will had been left behind.

He described the method as ‘very ragged,’ which was simply ‘out of character’.

Dr David Healy, a psychiatric medical expert who gave evidence to the hearing, said Kingston’s complaints that sertraline was continuing to make him anxious was a sign SSRIs ‘did not suit him’, and he should not have been prescribed the same thing again.

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‘We need a much more explicit statement saying that these drugs can cause people to commit suicide who wouldn’t have otherwise,’ he said.

Addressing the coroner, Martin Porter, counsel for the family, said: ‘The family don’t blame (his GP) Doctor Naunton Morgan, she was acting as good doctors do.

‘But the question is whether there is sufficient advice to doctors on SSRIs.’

Known as Tom to friends and family, Kingston was a close friend of Pippa Middleton and attended her wedding to James Matthews in May 2017.

He also worked briefly at the Foreign Office, even travelling to Iraq to help to aid the release of hostages.

Lady Gabriella, who is 56th in line to the throne, described him as an ‘exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him’.

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