Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Caroline Flack's mother has opened up about her daughter's death in a rare interview.
Christine spoke to The Guardian ahead of the new documentary Caroline Flack: Search For The Truth, which focuses on the TV presenter's life in the few months before she tragically took her own life.
In December 2019, Caroline had been arrested and charged with assaulting her boyfriend, Lewis Burton. She later stepped down from her Love Island presenting role so she would 'not detract attention from the upcoming series'.
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The former X-Factor host was found dead in her London flat in February 2020, with her family representatives and an inquest into her death saying the 40-year-old had taken her own life.
Five years after her death, her mother, Christine, is desperately searching to discover whether her daughter's celebrity status may have played a part in her case.
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She said: "I’d been trying for four years to understand what happened, and I still had so many questions. I’d come to a brick wall, so I went ahead. And whatever happens next, I always say that no one can do anything worse to me now. Nothing worse can happen than Caroline dying.
“I think I’ve got as many answers as I can now. I hope this programme can set the record straight. I wish I’d done it before Caroline died. At the time, though, in the middle of it, we were being told to stay silent, that it would all be OK and the charges would be dropped. Caroline was telling me, ‘Mum, don’t say anything'.”
On the night of Caroline's arrest, she and Burton had a huge argument when another woman messaged him, which led her to accuse Burton of cheating on her.
The inquest heard that Caroline had told police: "I had his phone in one hand and mine in the other. I whacked him round the head. There was no excuse for it. I was just upset. I admit I did it. He was cheating on me."
The initial CPS document said that prosecution wasn't in the public interest as there was no prior history of domestic violence, and it further noted that Caroline had admitted to the assault multiple times and that Burton didn't support a prosecution.
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Christine also expresses confusion about why a top CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) prosecutor was hired for the case, while suggesting that claims made by a CPS barrister were false.
It was suggested at the time that Flack had hit Burton over the head with a lamp, leaving a scene with lots of blood, but Christine suggests that the blood was actually Caroline's.
Both Burton and Flack denied a lamp being involved, but some papers continued to run headlines suggesting she had struck her partner with one.
“All the blood was Caroline’s. That just wasn’t understood. To Caroline, it felt like there was no way out." Christine said.
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In the documentary, former Crown prosecutor Nazir Afzal said the case made 'no sense' and that, after examining the evidence, he would have reached a different conclusion.
A CPS spokesperson stated: “A person’s celebrity status never influences whether a case is taken forward. We are satisfied that the prosecution was correctly brought.”
A Metropolitan police spokesperson also said in a statement to The Guardian that the police engaged with several independent reviews of their conduct on the case, adding: "While there was organisational learning for us on points of process, no misconduct has been identified."
Caroline Flack: Search for the Truth is on Disney+ from 10 November
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Topics: Mental Health, Love Island, Celebrity News
James Moorhouse