Robert Jobson commentary: The day I met Tara stuck in a cable car in Klosters

Driven: Tara Palmer-Tomkinson wanted success in her own right
Tim Whitby/Getty Images

Her struggles with cocaine addiction and closeness to the Royal Family came to epitomise the party loving socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.

But there was much more that defined this funny, sharp-witted woman who sadly died today.

A talented skier - not surprising given her father Charles, Prince Charles close friend, was a former Olympian in the sport. She was a gifted pianist and accomplished rider too.

She was driven and wanted to achieve success in her own right.

After her "career" as an "It girl" she penned three fairly successful "chic lit" novels too.

Prince Charles And Prince Harry on a ski lift In Klosters with sisters Santa Palmer-Tomkinson And Tara Palmer-Tomkinson.
Mike Forster/Associated News

But sadly she became famous for her outrageous behaviour often fuelled by drug abuse.

She was first treated for her addiction in 1999 after her appearance, high as a kite, on Frank Skinner’s TV chat show.

It confirmed what many had known for years. She was completely out of control.

Years later she told talk-show host Jeremy Kyle how she almost died after taking an overdose of cocaine.

Accomplished: Tara was a gifted skiier and pianist 
Rex

Tara rose to fame in the 1990s, one of the first celebrities famous for nothing in particular. TPT - as she was known - became a "brand" for no apparent reason before reality TV made it the norm.

She was extremely well connected, always around when Charles took sons Princes William and Harry skiing and attended William and Kate's wedding.

I first met her and chatted to her properly when we got stuck in an empty cable car in the ski resort of Klosters, Switzerland in the 1990s.

It broke down and we were suspended up in the air for about 30 minutes while it was being fixed as we were coming down the mountain.

She had been skiing with the royal party and knew I was a reporter covering the holiday.

It didn't seem to bother her. We got chatting and she was open and friendly.

"I've seen this in the Bond movies," she said, "One of us has got to climb on the top of the cable car and fix it," she said.

She didn't, obviously, say anything about her royal friends. But she didn't shy away from a conversation either just because I was one of the so called royal rat pack.

I found her warm, attractive and instantly likeable. Whenever I bumped into her subsequently she was always friendly.

It was not long after our chance encounter that her fame sky-rocketed.

Soon she had her own newspaper column, had secured book deals and was turning up on TV chat shows.

She more recently appeared on I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here and had recently revealed a secret year-long battle with a brain tumour.

It was a battle we all hoped she would win.

In a recent interview Tara said, "A party doesn’t have to be full of lights and music. The party is what you want it to be — and my party isn’t over."

Sadly, and all too soon, for TPT, it is.

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