British socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson has been friends with several members of the British royal family for many, many years, and yesterday, February 8, she was found dead in her home. Prince Charles has issued a statement about her passing. I had no idea how close Palmer-Tomkinson was to the royals, so I thought it might be interesting to explore a bit.
Tara at the 2013 wedding of Lady Melissa Percy, which was attended by Prince William, Prince Harry, Princess Beatrice, and Princess Eugenie
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson is the youngest of three children of Charles Palmer-Tomkinson, a skier who competed in the 1964 Olympic Games. She was born in 1971, and just 45 at the time of her death. Charles Palmer-Tomkinson taught Prince Charles to ski way back in the day, and since then the Palmer-Tomkinson family and the Prince of Wales have been very close.
It’s been widely reported that Prince Charles is Tara’s godfather, but Rebecca English says that is not the case. Nevertheless, Tara and Charles have been very close for many years: she used to go skiing with him and Prince William and Prince Harry in the 90s; she attended his wedding in 2005; and she attended William’s wedding in 2011.
Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall issued a statement on Tara’s death, saying: “We are deeply saddened and our thoughts are so much with the family.”
Sarah, Duchess of York also released a statement, saying her family was “so shocked by this tragic news of the magnificent, beautifully energetic soul of Tara.” Adding: “My mother was her very proud godmother, and she adored her. We are all deeply shocked and saddened.”
Above is a photo of Tara with Prince Charles and her sister, Santa, on a ski trip to Klosters in 1995.
In 1997, Tara was photographed on another ski vacation in Klosters with Charles and Harry.
In 2003, Tara attended a reception at Clarence House hosted by Charles to celebrate Breast Cancer Awareness Month (Charles is currently Patron of two breast cancer charities).
Tara was one of the guests at Charles and Camilla’s 2005 wedding, attending the ceremony at St. George’s Chapel.
Tara and Kate Middleton both attended the book launch party for The Young Stalin in 2007. In 2012 Tara said in an interview that she counseled Kate after the 2007 breakup with William, telling her: “He’ll be back, don’t worry.” Tara also praised Kate for “doing such a good job” as a royal. Here’s Tara full quote on Kate:
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“She is doing such a good job. She is beautiful and capable, sort of super-grounded, but really fun too. I first met her ages ago at Klosters and I always thought she and William were so good together. We have had lots of fun nights in relaxed situations and when they briefly split up I said to her, ‘He’ll be back, don’t worry.’ She and her sister Pippa came to my brother’s book launch during the split and people were being kind of horrible to her, but I knew William would be back as soon as he realised what he was missing out on. I think she has done something amazing – I am really proud of her. Whenever I see her on the cover of another magazine I smile. She reminds me of his mother – something about her eyes.”
Tara attended William and Kate’s 2011 wedding.
As of time of posting, no other royal has made a statement on Tara’s passing, although if there is a memorial or funeral for her I would not be surprised to see several royals in attendance.
Tara had quite the few demons throughout her life, which I won’t go into, and she was suffering from a brain tumor at the time of her death. But 45 is so young. My condolences to her family.
She was the most adorable girl with an enormous heart who led a very troubled life but it’s not too much of an exaggeration to say that was very much liked by GBP because essentially we saw a girl with a huge heart of gold. I hope her family can take some comfort from the outpouring of sadness and warmth that her death has generated.
She was as close to the Royals as is as possible to be. Extremely close to PoW and his sons. Good friends with the Yorkies. She had greatly reduced her time in the public eye over the last few years as she suffered from crippling anxiety.
Terribly sad news. I felt so shocked and very sad when I heard she had died. The tributes paid to her in death are exceptionally warm and very moving.
I don’t know why i read the DM comments considering i usually skip them on any story due to their raison d’etre of negativity and trolling.
I was so pleased to see such positive commentary and wish Tara would, could see it.
I knew Tara PT alittle. We were at school together and in the same house for 5yrs.
There is lots to say about her, but it hurts too much. It is utterly shocking that she is dead.
The op-ed you’ve written is very superficial, but i can’t correct the details without betraying confidences.
This much i will say, Tara was loved. She was bright, silly, scatty, loving and jolly good fun. It was impossible to be mad at her and was one of those rare people who didn’t have a bad bone or mean streak in her.
Her family will miss her of course, but so will all of us who knew her, however briefly that turned out to be.
Oh goodness I am so sorry Hera. That must have been very difficult to share. I think those qualities you write about were very evident to even those who didn’t know her. I hope the outpouring of affection for her gives you and the PT’s some small comfort. Xx
It is superficial, one might even say shallow. But since this is a blog about royals, I wanted to keep the post royals-focused. Also, I didn’t want to write about Tara’s many problems because I thought it would be rude to be negative about all her problems right now.
In terms of any details being incorrect, everything I’ve written here is based on the articles I’ve quoted and Getty Images’ descriptions, oh and Rebecca English’s tweet. I don’t know anything about Tara personally, so I’m only as good as the sources I read.
ETA: I just realized that I wrote the year Charles P-T competed in the Olympics incorrectly. I’ve now changed that.
I’ve since read from Rebecca Hardy at the DM that Tara wasn’t the God Daughter of PoW as many of us had believed but she was the God Daughter of Fergie’s mother, Susan.
My sincere condolences Hera but thank you for that bit of insight. Tara really did seem like a lot of fun, kind of the big sister that Wills and Harry never had and it says a lot about her that nobody (even on the DM’s commentary) has one single bad word to say about her.
I hope she’s truly resting in peace now.
Herazeus, I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Despite all Tara’s ups and downs, overcoming substance abuse and ill health it appears that she was loved by those who knew her. We would not expect you to share stories about her if that betrayed confidences. In defense of KMR, since she was not a personal friend of TP-T, I did not find this post shallow, but just a recap of what we, the public, have been reading about her.
Totally agree with that! I found it very sweet that KMR actually wrote a tribute to her. Thank you KMR!
She was so young! I don’t know much about her, but I do wish that she is finally at peace and comfortable.
This is very sad news.
My condolences to her family and friends.
It is very sad news about Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
Just read some quotes attributed to her on the Telegraph, a UK newspaper. She sounded like a witty, nice woman. RIP TPT.
Too young, so very sad. I don’t know much about her but goodness how sad. Did she have any children?
Very sad. I also hope she is at peace and that her family and friends will remember her with love. In all the photos you ran with the story, KMR, one can see a vibrant, beautiful, loving woman.
Any challenges she faced, I hope were faced with love and support.
I truly knew nothing about her until reading this. She made quite an impact on the world and I know that those whose lives were touched by her will miss her very much.