Cressida Bonas’ stepfather Christopher Shaw found dead

Prince Harry’s girlfriend Cressida Bonas is mourning the sudden death of her stepfather, after he was found dead by his housekeeper last Friday.

Christopher Shaw, 76, who married Cressida’s mother Lady Mary Caye Curzon in 1996, was discovered at his rented abode in The Close near Salisbury Cathedral just after 2.30pm on 17 January.

The financier had apparently been suffering from long term health problems, including chronic kidney disease, for which he was taking medication and had been told by doctors two years previously that he had just 18 months to live.

Wiltshire Police have since confirmed that a post mortem is set to be carried out and that a coroner has been informed. There are thought to be no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death, but reports emerging today suggest the former Grenadier Guards officer had taken an overdose of prescription drugs.

Shaw, himself a father-of-three, was Lady Mary-Gaye’s fourth husband when they married. He had two previous marriages and endured an apparently tumultuous relationship with Bonas’ mother after he left her for the 40-year-old daughter of a former aide-de-camp of the Duke of Windsor, Eliza Dugdale, in 2000.

Cressida was just 10-years-old when they separated but, according to friends of the family, he remained a “father figure” throughout her formative years.

“He may not have been her biological father but he was a massive part of her life,” a source close to Bonas told The Sun.

Prince Harry and dancer Bonas were last pictured together four days ago, as they visited burger restaurant chain Byron in Kensington on Friday accompanied by three plain-clothed policemen.

The pair have been dating since July 2012.