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Topics: Celebrity, Laura Whitmore, Mental Health, Love Island
Joe Harker
Topics: Celebrity, Laura Whitmore, Mental Health, Love Island
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Laura Whitmore has shared the last messages she received from Caroline Flack before the TV presenter died by suicide.
Love Island presenter Flack was found dead in her home on 15 February 2020, with her family representatives saying she had taken her own life, which was supported by an inquest into the 40-year-old's death.
Two months prior she had been charged with assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton, and days later stood down from her TV presenting role on the ITV2 dating show so she would 'not detract attention from the upcoming series'.
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Her replacement in the role was Laura Whitmore, who today (15 February) has posted on social media the last messages she received from Flack after she'd said it'd be her getting the Love Island job.
Whitmore said she'd got a new phone and had seen a lot of old messages, including the ones Flack had sent to her.
"I got a new phone this month and as I was trying to download WhatsApp messages from my cloud loads of old messages came up," Whitmore wrote in a post on Instagram.
“Ones I thought I lost a few years ago and no longer had. It really hit me hard.
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“Looking at messages I’ve never publicly shared as they were private messages. Media outlets wrote a lot far from the actual truth.
“I think they show a side to Caroline which is nice to remember. Hence I’m sharing now.”
In the messages, dated 18 December the day after Caroline Flack said she was stepping down from Love Island, Flack told Whitmore 'I hope you are doing the job' and that she 'wouldn't want it to be anyone else'.
Whitmore told her that she had been offered the role and wanted to tell Flack first, to which the TV presenter said she was 'glad' it was Whitmore getting the job.
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The pair had first met in 2011 when Whitmore succeeded Flack in the presenting gig on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! NOW!
The 39-year-old said Flack had been 'as supportive of me doing that role back then as she was when she supported me doing Love Island in 2020'.
She said: "I will always be so thankful of the last messages between me and Caroline.
"Every time I’ve been asked to speak about the situation or be part of a documentary I decline.
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“I’ve already said all I can say on the tragedy and don’t want words to be misconstrued and need to look after my own mental health.
“This was the last correspondence I ever had with her. The last message from her to me were love hearts.
“I’d like to think wherever she is now, she’s at peace and somewhere lovely like I hoped."
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.