Shortly before Caroline Flack committed suicide, two of her closest friends came together to care for her.
Louise Teasdale and Mollie Grosberg, who had partied with the Love Island presenter for a number of years, had rushed to her side after her first suicide attempt the day before, on Valentine’s Day 2020.
Caroline was, it is fair to say, in a terrible state. The star had just learned that her upcoming trial – for attacking her boyfriend Lewis Burton during an argument in her flat three months earlier – was going ahead. She feared losing her job, her dignity and the love of her life.
The friends had found her ‘barely conscious’ on the sofa in her flat in Stoke Newington, north-east London, after she sent them a text message saying she wanted to kill herself.
An ambulance was called, but Caroline had refused to go to hospital.
The next day, Caroline’s twin sister Jody was due to take over, but Louise and Mollie left before she arrived. Several accounts say they only went to the shops briefly, others say they were ordered to leave by Caroline.
It gave the star the window she needed and that afternoon she was found dead in her flat. Caroline was only forty.
There are a lot of painful “what ifs” and “whys.” What if Louise and Mollie had stayed? What forced them to leave when she was so vulnerable? Mollie has since said she will “never get over” her friend’s death.
Love Island host Caroline Flack was found dead in her north London flat after committing suicide in February 2020
And it is these questions, among others, that will be explored in a new documentary on Disney+ fronted by Caroline’s distraught mother, Christine, which will coincide with the fifth anniversary of her death in February 2020.
Curious Films, the production company that made the 2021 documentary Caroline Flack: Her Life & Death, is working on the program that will forensically chronicle her last 24 hours and attempt to provide answers to why she died – and whether her life could have been to happen. saved.
Grieving Christine tries to understand the pressure her daughter was under. It is said that she is no longer on speaking terms with Louise and Mollie – the last people to see her daughter alive.
A source close to the Flack family said: ‘Christine wants to know what happened in the last hours of Caroline’s life. There is also a sense that through the documentary you want to raise awareness of what happened, Caroline’s mental health, the pressure she was under and how she was treated.”
Another issue that has upset those closest to Caroline is the speed at which her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, a former tennis player, moved on.
Within a year of Caroline’s death, he went public with his relationship with Lottie Tomlinson, an influencer and younger sister of former One Direction singer Louis Tomlinson.
The couple, who were reportedly friends before Caroline died, are now engaged with a two-year-old son and have another baby on the way.
They live in a lavish £800,000 five-bedroom, three-bathroom luxury home in Kent. And while Burton and Lottie have every right to be happy, it’s especially shocking to Caroline’s friends and family that Louise Teasdale and Lottie are now, as one source puts it, “super close.”
The women are often seen together on social media and were at Glastonbury together in June this year. “Neither Christine nor anyone in Caroline’s family expected Lewis to stay single forever,” a source said. ‘Lewis and Lottie’s friendship upset Caroline when she was with him, so it’s hard to see them together.’
Caroline pictured with her mother Christine who stars in a Disney+ documentary chronicling Caroline’s last 24 hours and providing answers to why she died
Caroline’s friends also claim she paid Burton money. Although the nature of the payments is unknown, a friend points out that she was “extremely generous.” Norfolk-born Caroline struggled with mental health problems since her teenage years.
However, she didn’t let that stop her from carving out a blossoming career in showbusiness, winning Strictly in 2014 and going on to present Love Island.
When it came to matters of the heart, she was not so successful. There were several men: Harry Styles and (briefly) Prince Harry, were the best known.
There was also music manager Jack Street and an affair with former England rugby star Danny Cipriani, but when she met Lewis Burton, who at 27 was thirteen years her junior, she immediately fell for him. From that moment on, her life seemed to spiral.
It was in December 2019 that police attended her flat in Islington, north London, after Burton called them to say she had hit him with a lamp while he slept.
At the time, she also cut her wrists, leaving blood all over her bedroom. Those close to her say she “went ballistic” when police arrived – all of which was captured on bodycams.
After a visit to hospital, she went to a police station in north London, where she was initially told she would not be charged but would receive a warning. Three hours later, she called a friend in tears to say she would be prosecuted after all.
Earlier this year, Christine revealed that the Independent Office of Police Conduct has urged the Metropolitan Police to reopen its investigation into her beloved daughter’s case.
The watchdog has recommended interviewing an officer who was present at the time of Caroline’s arrest. He is said to have been involved in the attempt to override the CPS decision to give her a warning.
After the incident, Burton had refused to make a statement to the police, hoping this would lead to the police dropping the charges, but they went ahead anyway. This decision by the police left her ‘in pieces’, according to her friends.
After being charged, Caroline refused to be seen in public as she anticipated the court appearance and details that would be made available to the media. The recording – after which she was charged with common assault – has been described as ‘like a horror movie’.
Another issue Caroline’s family wants to investigate is whether she was used as a high-profile example of domestic violence against men.
The documentary, I’m told, will give Christine the chance to tell the world that her daughter’s death wasn’t as simple as the public might think – while also focusing on her legacy.
“Caroline’s friends want her to rest in peace,” said one friend. “And the truth can help her loved ones accept that she is no longer with us.”