The 8th Marquess of Ailesbury, Michael Brudenell-Bruce, 98, died in a tragic accident after falling from his bedroom window in Shepherd’s Bush, London. His girlfriend of over 30 years, Teresa Marshall de Paoli, believes he fell while trying to free their cat. “It was a freak accident,” she said. “He had blood all over himself.”
Teresa found him unconscious on the concrete patio. “I asked, ‘Oh, my dear, what happened?’ but he had already died.” Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene, and police initially treated the area as a crime scene. “They thought I might have killed him,” she recalled, but officers later confirmed his death was accidental.
Teresa described the heartbreaking moment: “I put a pillow under his head and called 999.” His daughter, Lady Kathryn Brudenell-Bruce, rushed to the scene, spending the night there as police investigated.
The Marquess, a former Eton student and stockbroker, had been married three times. His granddaughter, Bo Bruce, appeared on *The Voice*. A police spokesperson confirmed: “The death is unexpected but not being treated as suspicious.”
