Lady Gabriella said Thomas Kingston’s death was “likely provoked” by an adverse reaction to the medication he had begun, though a coroner ruled the financier took his own life

Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter Lady Gabriella Kingston yesterday spoke out for the first time since her husband Thomas Kingston took his own life.

Lady Kingston, 43, warned about the effects of drugs used to treat mental health problems as a coroner ruled Thomas stopped taking his medication in the days leading to his death. The coroner said Mr Kingston, 45, then used a shotgun to end his life, and was discovered dead at his parents’s house in Gloucestershire.

The financier, who married Lady Kingston on May 18, 2019, at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, died of a head injury on February 25 and the inquest on Tuesday in Gloucester was told he had struggled with stress and with sleeping in the weeks before his passing.

He had initially been given sertraline, a drug used to treat depression, and zopiclone, a sleeping tablet, by a GP at the Royal Mews Surgery, a practice at Buckingham Palace used by royal household staff. Mr Kingston returned to the surgery saying they were not making him feel better, and his doctor moved him from sertraline to citalopram, a similar drug.

But Lady Kingston, a freelance writer, told the hearing she believed his death was “likely provoked” by an adverse reaction to the medication he had begun, and subsequently stopped. She said: “The lack of any evidence of inclination, it seems highly likely to me that he had an adverse reaction to the pills that led him to take his life.

“I believe anyone taking pills such as these need to be made more aware of the side effects to prevent any future deaths. If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.”

Thomas Kingston’s death has left Lady Gabriella Kingston heartbroken ( 
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Toxicology tests had showed caffeine and small amounts of zopiclone was in Mr Kingston’s system when he died. Katy Skerrett, senior coroner for Gloucestershire, recorded a narrative conclusion of suicide.

In her statement, read out by Ms Skerrett on Lady Kingston’s behalf, the grief-stricken widow added: “(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.”

In his final weeks, Lady Gabriella said, her husband had “seemed normal”, apart from early in the day after previously taking zopiclone, which she said made him seem “almost hungover”.

In her statement, the royal described their marriage as “deeply loving and trusting” and said he had never expressed any suicidal thoughts to her or others. She 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”.

The coroner said said she intended to draft a prevention of future deaths report, which would be sent to medical bodies. 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, having used a crowbar to break down the door.

The financier married Lady Gabriella in St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle ( 
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He told the court his son had always had a strong, resilient character, having previously suffered from a pain condition which left him needing help to get up the stairs.

He told the coroner that leading up to his son’s death there did not appear to have been any searches for suicide, and no will or note was left, describing 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 zopiclone could also cause anxiety, while sertraline and citalopram were both selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and essentially the same.

Dr Healy said Mr 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.

He said the guidelines and labels for SSRIs were not clear enough about going on the drugs in the first place, or what the effect could be when moving from one to another.

“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.”