Lady Gabriella Windsor's husband, Thomas Kingston, passed away in February 2024 at the age of 45. "It is with the deepest sorrow that we announce the death of Thomas Kingston, our beloved husband, son and brother. Tom was an exceptional man who lit up the lives of all who knew him. His death has come as a great shock to the whole family and we ask you to respect our privacy as we mourn his passing," reads a statement shared on behalf of Lady Gabriella Kingston, Mr Martin and Mrs Jill Kingston, Mrs Joanna Connolly and Mrs Emma Murray, breaking the news of his death.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson also shared a statement: "The King and The Queen have been informed of Thomas’s death and join Prince and Princess Michael of Kent and all those who knew him in grieving a much-loved member of the family. In particular, Their Majesties send their most heartfelt thoughts and prayers to Gabriella and to all the Kingston family."
Below, a brief explainer on Lady Gabriella, shared following her appearance at King Charles's coronation in May 2023.
The extended royal family has come together frequently recently—in September 2022 in mourning their late matriarch Queen Elizabeth, and in May 2023 celebrating the coronation of King Charles. Present at both of those events was Lady Gabriella Windsor, a second cousin of King Charles. Here, a few things to know about the royal writer:
Lady Gabriella Windsor is the daughter of Prince and Princess Michael of Kent.
His Royal Highness Prince Michael was the Queen's first cousin, which makes Lady Gabriella a second cousin of King Charles.
Lady Gabriella's mother was born Baroness Marie Christine von Reibnitz, and in 1978, when she married Prince Michael, earned the right to use her husband's title. His title does not grant her use of the name Princess Marie Christine—she could only use that if she had been born royal.
Lady Gabriella has an older brother, Lord Frederick, who married Sophie Winkleman in 2009. They have two daughters, Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina and Isabella Alexandra May Windsor.
Ella is her nickname.
Her full name is Lady Gabriella Marina Alexandra Ophelia Windsor.
She shares her birthday with the late Queen Elizabeth.
Lady Gabriella was born on April 23, 1981 in St. Mary's Hospital in London. She grew up in an apartment in Kensington Palace. The Queen had famously paid the rent on the apartment until 2008, when members of Parliament demanded Prince and Princess Michael pay the full market-rate amount of £120,000.
She is in line to the throne, but way down the list.
The birth of Prince Louis bumped Prince Michael down to 46th, and Lady Gabriella down to 50th, and they've since moved further down. That said, they are both seen on the Buckingham Palace balcony with the rest of the royal family from time to time.
She works as a writer.
Her work has appeared in several outlets including the Sunday Telegraph, the Evening Standard, Country Life, The Spectator, and the Spanish version of Hello! She went to college at Brown University in Rhode Island.
She recently married Thomas Kingston in 2019.
Their intimate ceremony in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle was attended by several senior members of the royal family including the Queen and Prince Harry.
Lady Gabriella has been the subject of uncomfortable scrutiny.
Aatish Taseer, a writer whom Lady Gabriella dated in the early 2000s, published an essay in Vanity Fair detailing the time he spent in London with Ella.
Taseer claims he and his then-girlfriend did drugs together and swam naked in the Buckingham Palace pool, but perhaps more scandalously, he details her mother, Princess Michael of Kent's history of racism, including a well-documented outburst in New York in 2004 and the unfortunate anecdote that she had named two black sheep Venus and Serena.
A spokesperson for Lady Gabriella's parents told the Daily Mail that "There won’t be any comment on the story," but a friend of the young Windsor cousin told the publication that the allegations were "fiction."
