DAPPER: MY GUILT AT CAZZA TAUNTS

‘Wrong to jump on bandwagon’

DAILY STAR SUNDAY, March 15, 2020

DISGRACED comic Dap- per Laughs has revealed his torment over tweets he wrote about tragic TV star Caroline Flack shortly before her suicide.

Dapper, whose real name is Daniel O’Reilly, inset, said he posted on his social media account after she was arrested for assault .

In the post, he said he asked a rhetorical question about “how ITV would treat her” – having controversially lost his own show after making comments about rape.

But he was devastated when Caroline replied to him and told him he should know better.

O’Reilly, 35, has faced his own struggles with suicidal thoughts and depression.

He said: “She contacted me and said, ‘You should know better because you’ve been in this situation’ and I immediately deleted my tweet. I put another tweet up and said, ‘Do you know what, I feel terrible for jumping on the bandwagon.

“‘I know what she’s going through. I hope her and her family have a lovely Christmas and let’s cut her some slack.’”

But O’Reilly said he was distraught when he heard the news last month that the Love Island host had taken her own life. It followed her arrest in December.

He said: “It broke my heart. I feel like I was pushed really close to the edge through all the stuff that happened to me. Maybe Caroline was just more susceptible. Maybe she was a little bit weaker mentally before all that stuff happened.” Controversial comedian O’Reilly was at the height of his fame in 2014 when he made a joke about rape to his sell-out audience at Scala in London.

After a public outcry, he appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight to apologise and “killed off” the character of Dapper. He now says he has no intention of ever bringing him back and hates that people still think badly of him.

O’Reilly, who has been raising mental health awareness over the past few years, has now created a “Lad Pad” for men to write down their thoughts to battle anxiety and depression.