Tara Palmer-Tomkinson found dead at 45

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
(Image credit: PA Wire/PA Images)

Former star of I'm a Celebrity and Fame Academy, Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, has reportedly been found dead at her London flat

TV personality and society girl Tara Palmer Tomkinson has reportedly been been found dead in her London flat.

The 45-year-old former runner-up of I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! was diagnosed with a brain tumour in January 2016.

She only revealed that she was fighting the tumour late last year.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “Police were called by London Ambulance Service at approximately 13:40hrs on Wednesday, February 8 to an address in Bramham Gardens, SW5.

“A woman, aged in her 40s, was pronounced dead at the scene.

“At this early stage, the death is being treated as unexplained.”

He added: “We are not treating this death as suspicious. The coroner has been informed and the next of kin has been informed.”

Tara revealed in November that she was being treated for a non-malignant growth in her pituitary gland and had expressed fears that she would die after being told of her condition by doctors.

A picture of Tara Palmer-Tomkinson at a premiere

Tara Palmer-Tomkinson (Joel Ryan/AP/Press Association Images)

 

She told the Daily Mail: “I went to the doctors to talk about my latest blood test results when I got back from skiing in January. I said: ‘What does this mean? Can you translate it?’ And the doctor said: ‘As I suspected, you have a brain tumour’.

“I got terribly frightened. I started thinking, ‘I’m going to die, I’m going to die. I’ve only got a couple of weeks to live.’ Stuff like that.”

At the time, Tara, who has battled drug problems in the past, also revealed that was suffering with an auto-immune disease which had caused tiredness, joint pain and acute anaemia.

She appeared on reality TV series I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! in 2005 and came second, as well as several other TV shows including celebrity specials of Blind Date and A Place In The Sun.

She withdrew from The Jump in 2014 saying she felt she was under too much pressure as the favourite.

Tara had close links to the Royal family – her parents are close friends of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall – but she had a troubled life, including an addiction to cocaine that led to a nose reconstruction in 2006, frequently reported in the tabloids.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.