Tara Palmer-Tomkinson once gave Holly Willoughby her designer diamond ring.
The 45-year-old socialite was found dead at her home in west London on Wednesday (08.02.17) afternoon and, although it was believed she’d become "reclusive" in recent months, the ‘This Morning’ presenter will never forget her late friend’s "generosity."
Speaking on the brunchtime show on Thursday (09.02.17), the blonde beauty recalled the time they were speaking in a restaurant a few years ago during a night out.
She explained: "She had an incredible energy. I was lucky to know her because she was very close with a friend of mine.
"She had that special energy about her. She was so funny and incredibly kind. She was very generous with her time and with her spirit as well.
"The first time I met her, we were chatting and I noticed she had this diamond bling gorgeous ring on her hand and my eyes were following it like a magpie.
"I just said, ‘Your ring is beautiful’ and she said, ‘Oh this is just a bit of tut of Chanel’ and then she dropped it in my champagne and said, ‘It’s yours’. She told me to keep and said, ‘If you don’t keep it I will throw it across the restaurant.’
"So then I woke up the next morning with this amazing ring on my hand and I told her that I had it but she insisted she didn’t want it and I should keep it."
The pair had a strong bond and Tara – who was the goddaughter of Prince Charles – even came to Holly’s rescue in 2011 when she had a fashion emergency.
She said: "I just had Belle [her daughter] two months before and I had an event to get to but I was feeling really dumpy because I was still breastfeeding. She was a size six and I was like a size 16 by the point but she took me back to her house and we spent hours trying out clothes. She fully kitted me out with heels, her handbag, dressed me up and sent me off on my way. She was a real girl’s girl. She was a lovely person."
Tara was found dead at her luxurious penthouse in west London on Wednesday by a friend and, although her passing is "unexplained", police aren’t treating it as suspicious.
The beautiful star revealed last November that she had been diagnosed with a non-malignant brain tumour and thought it would kill her.
After her diagnosis last year, Tara’s outlook on life shifted and friends say she became "reclusive" and had started discussing how she wanted her funeral.
A friend explained: "Her health had left her in a really bad way and she was very low. She thought about death a lot and even discussed her funeral at points."
A post-mortem will be carried out on Tara’s body to determine her cause of death but, unless the examination comes back conclusive, toxicology tests will need to be undertaken to find out whether she had drugs in her bloodstream when she died.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson gave Holly Willoughby her ring
