Parents of Lady Gabriella's Late Husband Thomas Kingston Break Their Silence with Emotional Plea

The parents of the late Thomas Kingston made an emotional plea to raise awareness of the potential side effects of antidepressants after their son died by suicide at age 45 in February 2024 after he allegedly stopped taking his medication.

On Feb. 4, Jill and Martin Kingston spoke out in a new interview on BBC Radio 4's Today show, a few weeks ahead of the first anniversary of their son's death. Thomas, who was married to King Charles' second cousin, Lady Gabriella Windsor, was found dead at his parents' home in the Cotswolds on Feb. 25, 2024. A spokesperson for the coroner's office previously told PEOPLE that his cause of death was a "traumatic wound to the head" and a gun was found near his body.

According to the BBC, the financier "had stopped taking his medication" in the days before he died, and his parents now say there should be more extensive steps to prescribe selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), a commonly prescribed antidepressant. Jill and Martin spoke out two months after Katy Skerrett, senior coroner for Gloucestershire, connected Thomas' death to the medication he had been taking. ("The evidence of his wife, family and business partner all supports his lack of suicidal intent," Skerrett said then in a narrative conclusion, per the outlet. "He was suffering adverse effects of medication he had recently been prescribed.")

Related: Lady Gabriella Breaks Silence on Husband's 'Impulsive' Death at 45, Blames 'Adverse Reaction' to Medication

In a snippet of the Today interview shared to social media, Jill said that everyone prescribed SSRIs be fully informed of the potential complications of going on and off the antidepressants.

"There are two things we would really like to see changed. One is that every person who is prescribed SSRIs actually sign something that said they had been told about the difficulties of going on and the difficulties of coming off. They were aware — it's an extreme case — but it could lead to suicide. They need to be told that and have written something that showed that they'd heard," Jill said. "Alongside that, we'd really like to see that a person — a spouse, a partner, a parent, a close friend, somebody — was going to walk through it with them. Maybe they should be at that signing time."

Related: Who Is Thomas Kingston? All About Lady Gabriella's Husband, Found Dead at 45

Martin spoke in the interview about how hanging up the hundreds of cards and letters his family received brought relief amid their grief.

"Part of the leaning into the pain process was to put up in our hallway at home, the over 400 letters and cards, gluetack them to the wall. In part, because so many of them told us things we never knew," Martin told host Emma Barnett.

"I would like him to be remembered as someone with a big smile on his face while helping people to do difficult things," he said through tears.

Thomas was a financier and former hostage negotiator who married into the royal family when he wed Lady Gabriella, the daughter of Prince Michael and Princess Michael of Kent, in 2019. The couple frequently attended royal family events, and Thomas' death sent shockwaves when Buckingham Palace announced the news last February.

Elsewhere in the Feb. 4 episode of the Today show, Jill recounted the day that her son died, saying that Thomas was in an upbeat and "normal" mood as they spent time together, had lunch, read books and sat by the fire.

"He was normal, he was fun, we were laughing about various things — there was nothing that raised any suspicions in our mind," she told the BBC, Hello! reported.

"We fell asleep, he fell asleep, I fell asleep. Martin, you decided to go for a walk, and then Tom got up and went to unload his car because he was bringing home some stuff they'd got in London, and it was going to be stored with us," she said.

The couple grew concerned when they couldn't find Thomas, and Martin broke down the door of an outbuilding to find his son's body.

At the Dec. 3 inquest at Gloucestershire Coroner’s Court into the circumstances surrounding Thomas' death, Lady Gabriella, 43, emphasized her belief that Thomas' "impulsive action" was likely triggered by medication he had been taking in the weeks leading up to his death.

"It appears to me Tom’s impulsive action was likely provoked by an adverse reaction to the medication he had been taking in the last two weeks of his life," Lady Gabriella said in a witness statement read aloud in court, The Telegraph reported then, adding that she sobbed during some of the hearing. "I believe anyone taking pills such as these needs 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."

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In January, Skerrett, the senior coroner, said in a prevention of future deaths report that further action should be taken over the risk to patients prescribed SSRIs.

The BBC said that Thomas had been prescribed sertraline and zopiclone by a doctor at Royal Mews Surgery after reporting insomnia amid stress at work, and he was switched from sertraline to citalopram after relaying that the drug didn't help.

The coroner wondered whether there had been clear communication around the risks of the medications in a report sent to several U.K. health and medical agencies, which now have a few weeks to respond.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text "STRENGTH" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.

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