Prince Charles devastated by death of Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, Dame Joan Collins says
Prince Charles is reportedly devastated by the death of life-long friend, socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
Palmer-Tomkinson, who was a TV personality and newspaper columnist, was a big supporter of LGBT rights.
She passed away aged 45 at home in west London earlier this year.
Dame Joan Collins, who saw the Prince at a recent event, said he was very sad about the news.
“It was terrible, terrible news,” Dame Joan told The Sun.
“A lot of people were broken up. Prince Charles, too.
“Shortly afterwards, I went to a thing for The Prince’s Trust and said to him, ‘I’m so sorry, Sir, about your friend Tara’.
“And he looked very sad. She was his godchild.”
It had been widely reported that she was the godchild of the first in line to the throne, however it was later confirmed this was untrue.
The star’s sister, author Santa Montefiore, revealed the cause of death following speculation over brain tumours and drug abuse.
Ms Montefiore said a coroner found that Palmer-Tomkinson had died of “natural causes” and “did not have a brain tumour”.
She said: “Tara’s good friends and family know that she was in high spirits in her last days. She had plans, trips and had written a moving new song.”
It was originally thought she had died from consequences of a brain tumour, which she had been diagnosed with the previous January.
It was revealed after her death she had offered to be a surrogate mum to her friend, out gay business man Ivan Massow.
Mr Massow told the Telegraph: “About six years ago when she knew I wanted to have a baby, we talked about the possibility of her carrying my child.
“We looked into it but realised that as she was already 38 by then (and really quite frail) it wouldn’t be possible for her to have IVF.
“When she realised it wasn’t going to happen she started making jokes about it in that rather stoic way of hers.”
She previously spoke out about her tumour last November, saying: “I’m not the person I was, I’m much calmer.
“I don’t go to places like Ibiza because the party world scares me.
“It used to really matter what people thought and said about me.
“Now, it doesn’t bother me whether people write that I’m off my face, on my face, in my face, whatever.
“It’s all pretty trivial compared to [this].
“I’ve carried this secret for a year. I wanted to deal with my illness privately but there have been so many rumours flying around.”
