Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has died aged 45, it has been confirmed.
The former party-loving socialite has passed away in her London home, according to investigating authorities, only months after she revealed she was battling a brain tumour.
She was a close family friend of the Prince of Wales, and he and the Duchess of Cornwall have expressed their sadness at the news. “Our thoughts are so much with the family,” they add, referring to their great friends.
A police spokesman stated: “Police were called by London Ambulance Service at approximately 13:40hrs on Wednesday, 8 February to an address in Bramham Gardens, SW5.
“A woman, aged in her 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene. Next of kin have been informed.
“The death is being treated as unexplained. At this early stage, police are not treating the death as suspicious.
“Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing. The Coroner has been informed.”
The former ‘It’ girl had revealed in November that she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour the previous year, but had chosen to keep the news from the public, while she underwent her treatment.
Tara’s parents Charles and Patti Palmer-Tomkinson were two of Prince Charles’s great skiing buddies. With her impeccable aristocratic connections, her name was a must-have on every guest-list and her party-loving lifestyle became the stuff of legend.
She was a popular guest on many a reality show and TV panel. She appeared on the first series of ‘I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here’, and she triumphed on the BBC’s Comic Relief version of ‘Fame Academy’. She also worked as a columnist for newspapers and magazines including the Sunday Times and Tatler.
However, her health was hindered by a cocaine addiction she battled throughout the 1990s - at one time she was rumoured to have spent £400 a day on the drug that eventually robbed her of her nasal septum, and she underwent restorative surgery in 2006.
She once said: I’m not going to sit there and be ashamed of what I did, because I have had a life.”
Remembering Tara in pictures...