Tara Palmer-Tomkinson had holes in her mouth caused by years of cocaine abuse.
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
The 45-year-old socialite, who was found dead at her home by her cleaner on Wednesday (08.02.17), struggled to eat and found it difficult to sleep as a result of continuously taking the class A drug.
Speaking about the notorius party girl's state of health before she died, her close pal Henry Conway told The Sun newspaper: "If she skied, she skied at a million miles per hour and she partied with the same Olympic vigour. After her nose had collapsed, she developed holes in her mouth and she had a lot of problems eating.
"She wasn't sleeping very well either, and she had become quite agoraphobic. This was the girl who used to go out seven days a week. She was clean from drugs, but she seemed to be fighting a constant battle. Yet she was searching for some kind of deep affection."
Weeks before she died, Tara - who was the goddaughter of Prince Charles - visited her friend Kirsty Shaw-Rayner in hospital and appeared "very, very skinny" and spoke candidly about her own death.
A source told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: "Tara didn't look well at all, she was very, very skinny and there was clearly something not right but she was being incredibly brave and putting others before herself.
"There was only one moment when she was talking about her life and she said: 'Death comes to all of us, I've accepted that. It's all about the journey you choose to take. That's the only thing you can control'."
Despite her personal problems, she refused to lean on friends for support and turned to alternative therapies instead.
The source continued: "Towards the end she had a lot of self hate and anxiety. She got it into her head that people had been using her.
"Everyone wanted to be part of the Tara party and when she realised some people were using her, that was very harsh.
The realisation she was growing up hit her hard. She didn't get married or have children, which was very sad. She was turning to these therapies for support.
They added: "She didn't want to be a burden to pals so she turned to alternative therapists and in the last couple of months she was in touch with a spiritual healer and a pyschic."
Tara's family confirmed the star died "peacefully in her sleep" in a death notice posted by her relatives in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The statement added that a private funeral will be held for Tara in due course.
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