Tara was acting crazy... she was in dark place

Friends reveal the chaotic last days of tragic It-girl

TARA Palmer-Tomkinson was ‘in a dark place’ in the days before her death, a close friend said.

Yesterday neighbours said the socialite and former It Girl was becoming increasingly reclusive at her £4million home overlooking a sought-after London garden square.

It also emerged that she may have lain undiscovered for up to four days after her death before being found by her cleaner.

The 45-year-old was painfully thin and frail as she battled a rare autoimmune condition.

The close friend said she was struggling to cope as she recovered from a non-malignant brain tumour and there were concerns that she was once again abusing drugs. Workmen said they saw her ‘acting crazy’ and a café owner claimed she was always ‘away with the fairies’.

The last known sighting of her was on Saturday afternoon when she stopped to say hello to the owners of a local bar with a mystery new boyfriend.

Last night, Miss Palmer-Tomkinson’s sister, Santa Montefiore, 47, led tributes as she posted a ‘heartbroken’ symbol online. She also posted a dazzling black and white photograph of Miss Palmer-Tomkinson, writing: ‘My darling sister. I miss you.’

Her uncle, former British Olympic skier Jeremy Palmer-Tomkinson, 73, said: ‘It’s such a tragic and sad time. Words are never enough at a time like this. The family is distraught.’

Miss Palmer-Tomkinson was found dead by her Portuguese cleaner at her home in Earls Court, West London, on Wednesday afternoon.

Just weeks earlier she had returned from a holiday to the Thai island of Koh Samui. Police said that although her death is unexplained, there are no suspicious circumstances.

The author, fashion entrepreneur and actress had been in increasthe

‘She faced a lot of problems’

ingly ill health after revealing she had been diagnosed with a tumour on her pituitary gland in January 2016. Friends said she was also suffering with an auto-immune disease which had caused tiredness, joint pain and acute anaemia.

Friends, neighbours and local business people said they were concerned about her behaviour in the weeks before her death.

Viktor Krrashi, who saw her last Saturday at his brother’s gastropub, said she had acquired a new boyfriend five months before her death. The private members’ club barman, who said he has known socialite for more than 20 years, said she had also lost a lot of weight.

‘I saw her on Saturday afternoon when she was with this guy, she stopped at the door and said hi,’ he said. ‘She looked ill but even though she was thin she was always happy. She was a great girl.’

Her friend Ivan Massow, former chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, said she faced ‘a lot of problems’.

He said she was struggling to ‘stay off the drinking and things’ and required further surgery to her nose and mouth which collapsed after years of cocaine abuse. ‘She was terribly conscious about that, and then there was this [the tumour] on top ... so it was another worry,’ he added.

‘And she was never comfortable becoming an older person. It was hard for her to see herself in that role, and she was very frail.

‘I hadn’t seen her for over a month, and it’s been hard to reach her. With people like this, you have to sort of let go with love ... you can’t badger them.’

Asked if he thought that she had returned to a ‘dark place’, Mr Massow said: ‘Well, I know that every time I didn’t hear from her, that’s where she was.’

Her death drew a warm tribute from the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall who said they were ‘deeply saddened’. Miss PalmerTomkinson’s landowner father Charles, 77, was a former British Olympic skier who instructed the Prince of Wales. Her mother Patti, 75, was skiing in the Alps with the Prince in 1988 when their party was hit by an avalanche which killed the Queen’s former equerry, Major Hugh Lindsay.

It is not clear where her parents were when news of her death broke, but one family friend said she believed they were at their chalet in the Swiss resort of Klosters.

They are understood to be planning a small family funeral, possibly close to their farm in Hampshire.