Tara Palmer-Tomkinson’s sister pays moving tribute to the star after she tragically dies aged 45
TARA Palmer-Tomkinson’s sister has paid a moving tribute to the socialite who died on Wednesday.
Santa Montefiore, 47, shared a black and white picture of her 45-year-old sister looking effervescent as she looked over her shoulder and beamed at the camera.
The author captioned that snap: “My darling sister. I miss you.”
Santa’s tribute comes after she revealed to The Guardian what it was like growing up with the iconic and rebellious It Girl.
She said: "While I was head of house, vice head of school and played lacrosse for England, she was smoking behind the bike sheds or hanging out with all the handsome boys from the boys' school.”
Despite their differences, Santa says there was never any rivalry between the two.
"We've never competed. In fact, we're quick to celebrate each other's success."
Tara was found dead in her flat “by her distraught cleaner” five days after builders heard a crash from inside.
Workmen in the flat below the former It Girl’s penthouse said she had not been seen since the “very loud bang” on Friday.
reports a Portuguese cleaner, in her 30s, found the tragic It Girl before she set off an alarm.
Builders said they heard an alarm at about 1pm yesterday — and minutes later police and paramedics arrived. Tara, 45, who was found by a friend, was pronounced dead at 1.40pm.
A builder told The Mirror: "It was the cleaner who found her. She was crying and it was very quiet before she arrived and set off the alarm."
Another builder said: “We thought about going upstairs to see if everything was OK, but the emergency services arrived a few minutes later.
“We’d hear her walking around up there. But last Friday we heard a very loud bang in the afternoon — like someone or something falling over. We hadn’t seen her or heard her since then.”
It is understood Tara had been heard hoovering and walking around her flat the previous Wednesday and had failed to collect three items of post from downstairs.
She is also said to have complained to the flat's owner several times about the builders who say they "didn't ever see anyone going in or out".
Another builder, who didn't want to be named, told The Mirror: "I saw her on the stairs on Saturday and she looked tired."
Police said Tara’s death in Kensington, South West London, was “unexplained” and that they were keeping an open mind over the cause.
Tara, who appeared in I’m a Celebrity in 2002, revealed in November that she had been diagnosed with a non-malignant brain tumour and worried that it could kill her.
Tara’s blood tests also revealed that she was suffering from a rare auto-immune condition, related to her anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA-related), in which abnormal antibodies attack the body’s cells and tissues.
It is thought she was suffering from the condition – which can cause weakness, blood-filled urine and red spots on the skin - for 18 months before it was diagnosed.
She also battled addiction to cocaine and other drugs. And friends told last night how they feared she may have relapsed at a party in Mayfair before Christmas.
One said: “We never saw her take anything, but she seemed out of it and kept going to make phone calls.
“There was concern. Something was up and she looked particularly dishevelled.”
“There was a real worry she may have fallen back into using drugs as a crutch in the wake of her health worries and low moments.
“She desperately wanted to leave her drug issues in the past, but was so lonely and nobody could watch her 24 hours a day.”