Lady Gabriella Windsor had a really difficult 2024. Her husband Thomas Kingston died by suicide in February 2024. Gabriella (who goes by Ella) ended up leaving the home she had shared with Thomas and she moved back in with her parents, in their Kensington Palace apartment. She was barely seen for months after Thomas’s death, then she slowly began joining the Windsors at various events, like Trooping the Colour and Royal Ascot. Gabriella also turned up at the Princess of Wales’s annual “Together at Christmas” show last December. The staging was so odd – Gabriella entered Westminster Abbey alongside Carole Middleton and Michael Middleton for some reason. As it turned out, Kate asked Gabriella to help out with the show. And now Ella is praising Kate for including her.

Lady Gabriella Windsor sang Kate Middleton’s praises in her first major interview following the death of her husband Thomas Kingston last year. Lady Gabriella, 44, opened up about what it was like to work with the Princess of Wales on the fourth edition of her Together at Christmas carol service in a new interview with Hello! magazine, published on May 18. The conversation was her first major interview since her husband Thomas died by suicide at age 45 in February 2024 after he allegedly stopped taking prescription antidepressants.

“It was such an honor to be involved, and very thoughtful and kind-hearted of the Princess to include me. I was very touched,” Lady Gabriella said about collaborating with Princess Kate on the service in December 2024. “She was so lovely to work with, always gracious, very creative and with so much vision and passion for the many charities and causes she supports.”

Gabriella is a cousin of King Charles through her father Prince Michael’s side of the family and a passionate musician who played an advisory role around the musical performances for Kate’s Together at Christmas carol service in December at Westminster Abbey. A source told PEOPLE that Lady Gabriella enjoyed her role and was excited to be a part of the service, and that the Princess of Wales “was incredibly grateful for her contribution.”

In a show of support, Gabriella entered the event with Princess Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton. Though Gabriella had a hands-on role with the show, with some school bands from her latest patronage Restore the Music UK performing during the concert, she revealed that some details were even a surprise for her!

“There were surprises for everyone, even the people involved. It was a very special idea of hers to include ballet dancers at the concert – I didn’t know that there would be children as well as adult dancers, all brightly and beautifully dressed as they danced through the abbey,” Gabriella said. The mention seemingly referenced the ballet performance Kate wove into the program as a tribute for her daughter Princess Charlotte — a “secret” she said Prince Louis caught wind of and was “bursting” to tell his sister!

“It was a wonderful gathering of creative people, and it was extremely moving. I loved it and I was really touched to be asked,” Gabriella added about collaborating with Kate. “It was very kind of her.”

[From People]

I still don’t understand why Kate asked Ella to act as a musical advisor, but I guess this was the point. Embiggening Kate, showing Kate’s connections within the wider Windsor clan, visibly bringing Ella into the Middleton fold. What I genuinely hope is that Ella has the money to get away from these people. She’s been through enough, you know? I worry that they’re going to “persuade” her to become a working royal or something.

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