The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Unpublished social media post reveals Flack turmoil
● Tragic star admitted ‘emotional breakdown’ over assault charge
Caroline Flack described the inner turmoil over her arrest for allegedly assaulting her boyfriend in a previously unseen social media post shared by her family yesterday.
The 40-year-old former Love Island presenter said “her whole world and future was swept” from under her feet following the incident with boyfriend Lewis Burton in December.
It came as the inquest into her death in London heard that the TV star was found “lying on her back” after an apparent hanging.
The hearing at Poplar Coroner’s Court, which lasted four minutes, was adjourned until August 5.
Flack was found dead at her rented home in London on Saturday morning.
The inquest heard that the provisional cause of death was given as suspension by ligature.
It came as an unpublished Instagram post, shared posthumously by Flack’s family, revealed how the TV presenter felt the “walls” she had built around herself had “collapsed”.
And she denied assaulting former tennis player and model Burton, saying it was an “accident”.
She had been due to go on trial next month.
She wrote: “I have always taken responsibility for what happened that night. Even on the night. But the truth is...It was an accident.
“I’ve been having some sort of emotional breakdown for a very long time. But I am not a domestic abuser.
“We had an argument and an accident happened. An accident.”
Flack said pictures from the alleged crime scene featured her own blood and were sold to a newspaper.
She said: “That was something very sad and very personal.
“The reason I am talking today is because my family can’t take any more.
“I’ve lost my job. My home. My ability to speak.
“And the truth has been taken out of my hands and used as entertainment.
“I can’t spend every day hidden away being told not to say or speak to anyone.”
She added: “I’ve accepted shame and toxic opinions on my life for over 10 years and yet told myself it’s all part of my job. No complaining.
“The problem with brushing things under the carpet is...they are still there and one day someone is going to lift that carpet up and all you are going to feel is shame and embarrassment.”
Flack’s mother, Chris Flack, shared the message in her local paper, the Eastern Daily Press, in Norfolk where the TV personality grew up.
She said Flack sent it to her “at the end of January but was told not to post it by advisers”. The TV star pleaded not guilty to assault by beating at a magistrates’ court hearing in December, which was told her partner did not support the prosecution.
She was released on bail but was ordered to avoid any contact with Burton ahead of the trial. the valve with a larger version.
However, scientists say the new device created at Boston Children’s Hospital in the US could allow children to keep the same prosthetic valve until adulthood.
Published in Science Transitional Medicine, they suggest it could also benefit adults with heart valve defects.
More than 1.35 million children worldwide are born with a congenital heart disorder each year, resulting in an annual expense of around £4.5 billion.
Of these disorders, most that involve heart valves are treated with prosthetic replacements.
Dr Pedro del Nido, chairman of cardiovascular surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital and senior author, said: “We hope to bring this new device into clinical testing fairly rapidly. If our preclinical results hold up in human testing, this could transform the field.”