When Caroline Flack learned that her beloved Love Island job had been handed to her younger, blonder, rival Laura Whitmore, she was distraught.
Days earlier, Caroline had a difficult phone call with some of ITV’s most senior bosses in which she was told she was no longer going to be allowed to continue hosting the dating show she’d fronted – and become the ‘face’ of – for the past five seasons.
The reason for her departure was clear: it wouldn’t be appropriate now that Caroline, 40, had been charged with assault following a late-night, jealous argument in which she’d hit her boyfriend Lewis Burton with a lamp.
Her exit had prompted much speculation over who would step into her shoes: whether it would be Irish model Laura or the even younger Maya Jama, who is the current presenter.
Following the announcement that Laura had indeed got the job, Caroline took to WhatsApp and left voice notes for her friends, telling of her devastation.
‘It broke Caroline’s heart,’ said a friend of the late television host. ‘She had clung on to the hope that the charges would be dropped and that she would be able to continue after all.
Caroline Flack was said to be ‘distraught’ when she learned that her Love Island job had been handed to her younger, blonder, rival Laura Whitmore
Laura, the 39-year-old former MTV showbusiness journalist, took to Instagram last week, on the fifth anniversary of Caroline’s death, to share an exchange of messages between herself and Caroline
‘Next Laura had the job. It felt awful for Caroline. She knew Laura a bit, but not particularly well, but her job had been snatched away from her. Caroline was furious and desperately upset.’
It was losing this job that she adored – and the thought of being publicly humiliated at a criminal trial – that ultimately led to Caroline spiralling into despair, and culminated in her taking her life on February 15, 2020.
And after her death, her devastated mother Christine made it very clear how ‘horrible’ it was to see Laura in her daughter’s role.
‘I watched Love Island because Carrie was in it,’ she said. ‘Now, it’s horrible when the advert comes up and the girl that’s taken her place is in almost the same dress, in almost the same pose. I think ITV2 could have done it a little differently. They could have done it out of respect.’
So when Laura, the 39-year-old former MTV showbusiness journalist, took to Instagram last week, on the fifth anniversary of Caroline’s death, to share an exchange of messages between the two of them, there was much shock within her circle.
Along with a throwback photo of them together, Laura posted a series of texts they exchanged in the five weeks between Laura being offered the Love Island job, and Caroline taking her life.
Caroline, 40, had been charged with assault following a late-night, jealous argument in which she’d hit her boyfriend Lewis Burton with a lamp
In one text, saved as ‘Flacky’ in Laura’s phone (though many of Caroline’s friends called her Carrie), she had obviously swallowed her pride, and wished Laura the best.
Those who knew her, however, will attest to how much every word must have stung. ‘I hope you are doing the job… I wouldn’t want it to be anyone else,’ she wrote.
Later, after landing the role, Laura shared the news with Caroline before it became public and promised to ‘do my very best to give it the justice it deserves’.
Caroline simply replied with a red heart emoji and said: ‘I’m glad it’s you.’
In a lengthy caption alongside the post, Laura gushed over Caroline’s ‘support’ and admitted it had ‘really hit me hard’ reading back their touching final exchange.
‘I got a new phone this month and as I was trying to download WhatsApp messages from my cloud and loads of old messages came up. Ones I thought I lost a few years ago and no longer had. It really hit me hard.
‘Looking at messages I’ve never publicly shared as they were private messages. I think they show a side to Caroline which is nice to remember. Hence I’m sharing now.’
Her decision to do so was viewed as ‘totally unnecessary’ by those who knew Caroline. Others see it as totally inappropriate and jarring.
One said: ‘Why would Laura do that? They were private messages between them, Caroline’s nearest and dearest wouldn’t publicly share private correspondence so why would Laura?
Caroline pictured leaving a magistrates’ court in December 2019 after pleading not guilty to assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton
‘Caroline was kind and would not have wanted Laura to think she had ill feeling towards her, but Caroline was so upset at losing that job. She loved it so much, it seems in pretty poor taste that Laura has put them out there, nobody can really understand why.
‘When you send a text to someone you don’t expect it to be shared into the public domain, even five years later. Laura even acknowledges that the messages are private yet she still shared them.
‘It’s hard to see of what benefit this had to Caroline on such a poignant day.’
Indeed, it’s fair to say many are beginning to wonder whether Caroline, and the terrible circumstances of her death, will ever be left in peace.
Certainly her mother Christine shows no signs of letting matters rest as she continues to fights for answers.
Caroline’s life began to spiral out of control in December 2019 when Burton, a then 27-year-old former tennis player and model with whom Caroline was said to be besotted, called the police to say that she had hit him with a lamp at her flat in Islington, north London.
Following the attack, in which Burton received superficial injuries, Caroline slashed her wrists, leaving blood all over her bedroom. Those close to her say that she ‘went ballistic’ when the police arrived – all of which was recorded on their bodycam.
After a visit to hospital, she attended a north London police station where she was told initially that she wouldn’t be charged and would be able to leave with a caution. However, three hours later she called a friend in floods of tears to say that she was being charged over the attack after all.
And it is that decision that Christine disputes. Earlier this year, she revealed the Independent Office of Police Conduct has urged the Metropolitan Police to reopen its investigation into the case. The watchdog has recommended that the force’s Directorate of Professional Standards interviews an officer who was present at the time of Caroline’s arrest.
He was said to have been involved in the move to overrule the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to issue her with a caution for her attack on Burton.
A court date had been set for March 4, 2020, and Caroline was haunted by the thought of that police bodycam footage being made public during the trial.
This is what friends say prompted Caroline to take her own life on February 15 at her home in Stoke Newington, north-east London.
Five years on, Caroline’s distraught mother is in the middle of making a documentary for streaming giant Disney+. Curious Films, the production company that made 2021 documentary Caroline Flack: Her Life & Death, have already set to work on the programme which hopes to explain why she died – and whether her life could have been saved.
While most of Caroline’s friends didn’t want to take part, those who did found the line of questioning uncomfortable.
Indeed, Curious Films have repeatedly asked me to take part as a member of the Press – which Christine also feels contributed to Caroline’s declining mental health, and ultimately her death,
Their plan was that I too would be quizzed to explain why particular stories appeared in newspapers. The truth is that the last time I saw Caroline, at Soho House’s House Festival at Kenwood House in July 2019, she was happily entertaining a circle of journalists. She was also still briefing them in 2020, very close to her death.
‘When Caroline died there was a whole ‘Be Kind’ message that was shared,’ said a friend. ‘Nobody can work out why this is happening now.’
