Little did anything hint at the hard blow that King Charles III and Camilla received two years ago. Lady Gabriella Windsor and her husband, Thomas Kingston, had attended an event at the National Gallery in London and looked happy. That is why the death of the prince’s son-in-law and Princess Michael of Kent from self-inflicted gunshot wounds came as a real shock. Now the monarch’s second cousin is trying to rebuild her life, starting from scratch.
To do so, she has decided to leave her London flat and move to a new place. After her husband’s death, the aristocrat had moved with her parents to the flat they own in Kensington Palace, but later she had found another home for herself in the capital. Photographers captured images of Lady Gabriella Windsor, known for her discretion and simplicity, loading her personal belongings into a van herself.
For the task, she asked for help from one of her best friends, Lady Eloise Waymouth, the daughter of the late society photographer, Lord Patrick Lichfield. The two were seen chatting and smiling animatedly as they eschewed a moving service and carried boxes, chairs and bags themselves to transfer them to the new residence of Lady Gabriella Windsor.
Known to family and friends as Ella, Lady Gabriella married financier Thomas Kingston at the St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, in May 2019. Kingston, a former hostage negotiator turned businessman, was often described by his friends as a man of “immense charm and intelligence.” His wife used to comment in interviews how lucky she felt to have met “someone so special.” Before starting this romance, he was already a well-known figure in British social circles, as he had previously dated Pippa Middleton.
The Tears of Lady Gabriella Windsor
In the judicial investigation following his death, it was revealed that Thomas Kingston, who led an investment company with heavy losses, had suffered effects from a combination of antidepressants and sedatives. In fact, the full extent of the financial pressure facing his firm, Devonport Capital Limited, has only recently come to light. It appears the company had a negative balance of €32.3 million.
Lady Gabriella Windsor y Thomas Kingston.
In a desperate bid to save the company he had founded himself, Thomas Kingston had invested £1.6 million of his personal fortune in the business. Lady Gabriella, who cried during the hearing, stated: “Anyone taking pills like these should be informed of the side effects to avoid future misfortunes. If this could happen to Tom, it could happen to anyone.”
When speaking about the mood of her late husband, Lady Gabriella reflected on the interrelation between his professional and personal difficulties. The aristocrat acknowledged that work had been “a challenge over the years” for her husband, but she was decisive in her words to the judge: “I strongly doubt that would have driven him to take his own life. It seemed the situation had improved a lot.”
The Complicated Inheritance of Thomas Kingston
The investigation revealed that the late financier had sought help for work-related stress and insomnia in the months leading up to his death. He even received treatment at Buckingham Palace’s private clinic. At the hearing it was revealed that Kingston had stopped taking his medication in the days immediately preceding the tragedy, a factor the investigating judge linked to his “sudden impulse to take his own life.”
The husband of Lady Gabriella Windsor did not leave a will, so the entirety of his estate, valued at €764,000, passed into the hands of his widow. The London High Court finally granted the letters of administration earlier this year, officially bringing to a close a lengthy probate process that had lasted two years. In the final figure received by Lady Gabriella, debts, funeral expenses and taxes were settled.
