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Daily Record
Daily Record
Entertainment
Magdalene Dalziel & Ryan Merrifield

Scots cousin of Duchess of Cornwall found dead in hotel room after years-long divorce battle

A Scots relative of the Duchess of Cornwall has been found dead in his hotel room.

Charles Villiers, from Tyninghame in East Lothian, is Camilla's distant cousin who became well known after one of the longest divorces in UK history, which cost £10,000 a month for eight years.

Police in London confirmed news of the 59-year-old's death this week after he was discovered by a housekeeper who was working for the Durrants Hotel in Marleybone, London.

It is believed he took his own life after being declared bankrupt, reports the Mirror.

Charles and his estranged wife Emma Villiers were embroiled in the long-running divorce as they disputed whether it should be settled in the Scottish or English courts.

They separated in 2014 before filing for divorce two years later.

(Getty Images)

It's been reported that Charles had been sleeping on sofas belonging to friends and then moved on to one of their yachts recently.

It's also understood Charles then returned to the UK to visit a clinic, as arranged by the friend, because of a deterioration in his mental health.

But he instead checked into the hotel last Wednesday and was found dead the following day, reports the Times.

Charles' argument was based on his belief the divorce should be dealt with by a Scottish court but the Supreme Court justices ruled in his wife's favour.

In March last year, Mr Justice Mostyn of the High Court's family division ruled Charles was in such bad financial difficulties he should be able to forego paying maintenance.

He said the former couple had been "financially ruined" by very poor litigation which had likely impacted them both psychologically but Emma won an appeal to overturn his ruling.

The court heard their manor home Milton House, near Dumbarton, West Dunbartonshire, was repossessed in 2015.

(Lennox Herald)

Charles had been engaged to opera singer Heidi Innes before they split in February.

The pair had been forced out of a rented cottage in Tyninghame in November, after they ran up thousands in arrears during the Covid pandemic.

They had then briefly moved to Budapest, in Hungary, before splitting up.

A spokesman for the Met Police told the Mirror: "Police were called by the London Ambulance Service at 13:11hrs on Thursday, 18 August to reports of an unresponsive man at a hotel on George Street, W1.

"Officers attended. At the scene a man, aged in his 50s, was found deceased."

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