The last time I saw Caroline Flack was at the trendy and exclusive House Festival on London’s Hampstead Heath. It was, I’m told, her favourite event of the year.
She was beaming in a bright yellow sun dress, cocktail in hand, as she cackled happily with a group of journalists. It was July 2019, just seven months before the Love Island host took her own life in her North London flat.
But on that day, at least, she was exuberant. She boasted about what a ‘big day’ she was going to have – no surprise, given it was hardly a secret that Caroline loved a party.
She also loved the Press. For starters, she bathed in the attention, but she was also known to befriend journalists just so she could have a good old gossip. It was no bad thing that this also ensured we wrote nice things about her.
I had bumped into Caroline frequently on the London party circuit since 2008 when she began to carve out a name for herself.
But that carefree last meeting, which had been so ordinary, today feels all the more poignant.
Tomorrow, Disney+ will release its new documentary about the star, fronted by her grieving mother Christine. Called Caroline Flack: Search For The Truth, the two-parter will follow Christine as she tries to understand her daughter’s death in February 2020, when she was just 40.
It is impossible to feel anything but sympathy for Christine. But while her quest may be understandable, the project has caused significant upset for Caroline’s friends and former colleagues.
Caroline Flack at House Festival on Hampstead Heath in London in 2019 – her favourite event of the year
It was hardly a secret that Caroline loved a party. She also loved the Press. She was also known to befriend journalists just so she could have a good old gossip
They tried their best to support Caroline through her (not insignificant) personal troubles. As far as I know, many were asked to appear on the documentary, but only one – her loyal former agent Louisa Booth – agreed.
Indeed, for the others, raking over their friend’s death again feels ‘totally unnecessary’ and has forced them to revisit a devastating period in their lives.
Caroline’s friends claim Christine ‘didn’t really know what was going on in her daughter’s life’ at the time, and question whether the programme does, in fact, tell the full, true story of what happened.
It’s fair to say that some are even angry about the documentary.
As one friend told me: ‘The truth is that Caroline’s mum had no idea what [Caroline] was doing.
‘She was in Norfolk, Caroline was in London. It was hard for those of us around Caroline – we loved her, adored her – but there were tearful phone calls day and night and we did our best to look after her. This was before she hit Lewis, even – yet now Christine speaks to hardly any of us. It has destroyed us as well.’
The friend is referring, of course, to the now infamous incident in December 2019 when Caroline assaulted her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, over fears he was cheating. It followed a night out and police attended her flat to find both of them injured, and she was later charged with assault.
It is the incident many people point to as the start of her downward emotional spiral. There were questions at the time over Caroline’s mental state that night. She drank a lot, and there were also rumours (confirmed to me by several of those who knew her well) that she took drugs.
But curiously, there is no mention of Caroline’s wayward behaviour in the documentary. ‘Caroline’s going out, drinking and the rest of it, was part of the problem,’ the friend said. ‘We would often beg her not to go out partying, but she just wouldn’t listen.
‘She suffered with mental health problems, which she was open about, but self-medicating only exacerbates these issues.’
On the fateful night, one of her team had begged her not to go out because she had a photoshoot and interview with Grazia magazine the following morning.
Caroline ignored the plea and instead went to private members’ club Shoreditch House with friend Louise Redknapp. When she got home – worse for wear, I’m told – she apparently found messages from a woman on Lewis’s phone, and attacked him as he slept.
Tomorrow, Disney+ will release its new documentary about the star, fronted by her grieving mother Christine
It is impossible to feel anything but sympathy for Christine. But the project has caused significant upset for Caroline’s friends and former colleagues
He called the police who arrived to find Caroline had slashed her wrists. A photograph taken of her flat, featuring the blood, was published in a red-top newspaper after it was circulated on WhatsApp.
Even the night before she was due at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court on December 23, 2019, I’m told she had been drinking.
Wearing sunglasses, she only arrived on time because her team had got her ready, one friend said. After the hearing, at which she pleaded not guilty, she spent Christmas with her mum in Norfolk, before returning to London, where, weeks later, she was found dead.
At the inquest, Christine took aim at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for charging her daughter with assault rather than issuing her with a caution, which had been the original plan. She also claimed her daughter’s celebrity status motivated the CPS decision. She repeats her claims in the documentary, even though police have denied Caroline’s status had any bearing on their pursuit of her. Lewis also refused to make a statement.
Further ignored by the documentary is the fact that Caroline had tried to take her own life when she was 19. This was reported in another documentary made by the same production company, Curious Films, for Channel 4.
Also on Christine’s hitlist are the Press. Speaking on behalf of newspapers was former Irish Daily Mirror journalist Paul Martin. I refused to take part, as did several other journalists, as it seemed clear to us that Christine wanted us to take some of the blame for her daughter’s death.
Martin insists on the show that he was told by editors to get an interview with Caroline ‘or do her over’. I have no idea who these unnamed ‘editors’ were, and he no longer works as staff at a newspaper.
One source close to Caroline said: ‘Disney hardly did their due diligence on him. We didn’t see him around, I don’t believe Caroline’s team had ever heard of him.’
But the truth is she was terrified that police body-cam footage from her flat would be shown in court, which would have been understandably embarrassing.
Today, her friends strongly believe she should have been advised to plead guilty, sparing her the ordeal of a public trial.
As with many cases, the reasons for someone’s suicide are myriad.
‘There was so much going on in Caroline’s life,’ said one friend. ‘There always was. We just wish she could have known that she would have got through it all.’
For confidential support, call the Samaritans on 116123 or visit samaritans.org
