Tragic Caroline’s twin: I begged her to give up showbiz
Flack’s family reveal depth of the fragile Love Island star’s anguish in emotional documentary
THE family of tragic Caroline Flack begged her to quit showbusiness because they feared for her life, a new television programme reveals.
In the Channel 4 documentary, the presenter’s mother Christine speaks about her daughter’s emotionally fragile state and how she found it ‘impossible’ to deal with heartache.
And Caroline’s twin sister Jody recalls how she pleaded with her to step off the celebrity treadmill in a bid to give herself some chance of ‘an easy life’.
Caroline, 40, was facing trial for assaulting her boyfriend Lewis Burton. Days after being questioned by police, she stood down as presenter of Love Island and was found hanged in her London flat just over a year ago.
The documentary, Caroline Flack: Her Life And Death, will be screened next week and reveals how she slit her wrists so badly in the aftermath of the attack on Mr Burton that she needed plastic surgery.
It also features a number of family members and friends speaking publicly for the first time about how life as a celebrity affected her.
While some confide that she wasn’t ‘emotionally wired to deal with fame’, fellow television presenter Dermot O’Leary told programme makers that she was ‘addicted’ [to fame] but ‘couldn’t cope with it’. Her sister Jody said: ‘I would beg her to change jobs and leave showbiz but she never would, life would have been easier but she wasn’t built for an easy life.
‘She was always scared she’d be ridiculed, she was terrified to admit her mental health struggles.’
Jody also observed: ‘She was fascinated by the subject of suicide – I was prepared that it could happen.’
Caroline’s mother said ‘she found heartbreak impossible’ and told how she once became distraught over a failed romance with a fairground worker known to the family as ‘Waltzer boy’, explaining: ‘She ran away from home as a teenager after falling for a man who worked at a fair, it broke her heart.’
Mrs Flack, who has previously only spoken to her local newspaper about Caroline’s death, criticised Lorraine Kelly and Graham Norton for ridiculing her daughter for losing jobs. Kelly remarked ‘that’s showbusiness’ on her ITV morning show when Caroline had to leave Love Island, while Norton joked about her being dropped as a presenter on The X Factor.
‘The documentary made this year bearable – it was therapy for us,’ said her mother, who also begged Instagram and Twitter to tackle online abuse. ‘I don’t think they protect anyone – you can’t get away from it, it follows you on your phone. They are making money from it and need to step up.’
Caroline Flack: Her Life And Death airs on Channel 4 on Wednesday, March 17, at 9pm.