The stepfather of Prince Harry’s girlfriend Cressida Bonas has died suddenly, it emerged last night.
Financier Christopher Shaw who married Cressida’s mother, Lady Mary Gaye Curzon in the Nineties, was found dead by his housekeeper at his rented home in The Close, by Salisbury Cathedral just after 2.30 pm on Friday (17 Jan).
The father of three had been reportedly suffering from long term health problems including kidney disease.
Police were called to the house on Friday. Wiltshire Police said a post mortem is to be carried out and the coroner has been informed.
Police confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.
Lady Mary-Gaye married Mr Shaw, her fourth husband who was ten years her senior, in 1996.
The family moved in with former Grenadier Guards officer, a former Eton headboy, at Hinton Ampner, his National Trust-run country pile in Hampshire.
Friends said that theirs was a turbulent relationship and Shaw left her for 40-year-old Eliza Dugdale, the daughter of a former aide-de-camp of the Duke of Windsor, in 2000.
Although Cressida was just ten when they separated, a friend of his told the Sun: “Christopher was Cressida’s father figure in her formative years,
“He may not have been her biological father but he was a massive part of her life.”
Once known for his flamboyant millionaire lifestyle, Mr Shaw, who wooed Lady Mary-Gaye with a lavish Venetian-themed party and once owned property in Wiltshire, New York and Hampshire, had cut back on his spending in later years.
Shaw was married first to banker LoelGuiness niece Liza Gard, then to a Frenchwoman before marrying meeting Lady Mary-Gaye.
