Emma Barnett Instagram – Exclusive: Jill and Martin Kingston faced a reality no parents should face – their son took his own life in their home after they had enjoyed a perfectly lovely lunch together. They were the ones to find him with a gun near his body, after he suffered a traumatic head wound.
Thomas Kingston, the husband of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent’s daughter and the king’s second cousin, Lady Gabriella Windsor, was just 45. His death prompted a warning from a coroner.
Today his parents speak for the first time since their son’s death. And they are doing so because they want something to change. Their son, who worked in finance, had been struggling with stress in his job and was prescribed by his GP some sleeping pills and an antidepressant – a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor – known as an SSRI.
Tom, as his family refer to him, then returned to the surgery saying they were not making him feel better, and his doctor moved him from sertraline to citalopram, a similar drug. He then stopped taking that one as well.
At an inquest, senior coroner Katy Skerrett said Mr Kingston had taken his own life and “was suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed.” In a prevention of future deaths report, she said action must be taken over the risk to patients prescribed SSRI medications.
And his widow Lady Gabriella said in a statement: “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…If this could happen to Tom, this could happen to anyone.”
Current NHS advice says research suggests anti depressants can be helpful for people with moderate or severe depression. You must talk to you doctor before you stop taking anti depressants and it’s important you do not stop taking them suddenly.
Jill and Martin are on air now @bbctodayprogramme and catch up at @bbcsounds @bbcradio4 @bbcnews | Posted on 04/Feb/2025 13:14:19
