Shortly before Caroline Flack took her life, two of her closest friends came together to care for her.
Louise Teasdale and Mollie Grosberg, who had been partying with the Love Island presenter for several years, 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 a fight in their apartment three months earlier, was going ahead. He feared losing his job, his dignity and the love of his life.
Friends found her “barely conscious” on the sofa in her flat in Stoke Newington, north-east London, after she texted them saying she wanted to kill herself.
They called an ambulance, but Caroline refused to go to the hospital.
The next day, Jody, Caroline’s twin sister, was due to come and take over, but Louise and Mollie left before she arrived. Several accounts say they only briefly went to the shops, others say Caroline ordered them to leave.
It gave the star the window she needed and that afternoon she was found dead in her apartment. Carolina was only 40 years old.
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 fragile? Mollie has since said she will “never get over” her friend’s death.
Love Island presenter Caroline Flack was found dead in her north London flat after taking her own life in February 2020.
And it is these questions, among others, that will be explored in a new Disney+ documentary hosted by Caroline’s distraught mother, Christine, to 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 show that will forensically detail her final 24 hours and attempt to provide some answers about why she died and whether her life could have changed. been saved.
Grieving Christine tries to make sense of the pressures her daughter was under. It is said that Louise and Mollie, the last people to see their daughter alive, are no longer spoken to.
A source close to the Flack family says: “Christine wants to know what happened in the last hours of Caroline’s life. There is also a sense of wanting to raise awareness through the documentary about what happened, Caroline’s mental health, the pressures to which she was subjected and how she was treated.’
Another issue that has upset those who were closest to Caroline is the speed with which her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, a former tennis player, moved on.
A year after 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 said to have been friends before Caroline’s death, are now engaged with a two-year-old son and another baby on the way.
They live in a luxurious five-bedroom, three-bathroom house, worth £800,000, in Kent. And while Burton and Lottie have every right to be happy, what’s particularly jarring for Caroline’s friends and family is that Louise Teasdale and Lottie are now, as one source says, “super close.”
The women are often seen together on social media and were together at Glastonbury in June this year. “Neither Christine nor any member of Caroline’s family expected Lewis to be single forever,” a source tells me. “Lewis and Lottie’s friendship bothered Caroline while she was with him, so seeing them together is difficult.”
Caroline pictured with her mother Christine, who headlined a Disney+ documentary that will detail Caroline’s last 24 hours and try to provide some answers as to why she died.
Caroline’s friends also claim that she was paying money to Burton. While the nature of the payments is unknown, a friend notes that she was “extremely generous.” Norfolk-born Caroline had struggled with mental health issues since her teenage years.
However, she didn’t let that stop her from forging a flourishing showbiz career that saw her win Strictly in 2014 and then host Love Island.
In matters of the heart he was not so successful. There were several men: Harry Styles and (briefly) Prince Harry were the most famous.
There was also music manager Jack Street and an affair with former English rugby star Danny Cipriani, but when she met Lewis Burton, who at 27 was 13 years her junior, she fell in love with him instantly. From then on his life seemed to spiral.
It was in December 2019 that police attended his flat in Islington, north London, after Burton called them to say he had hit him with a lamp while he was sleeping.
At that time he also cut his wrists, leaving blood all over the bedroom. People close to her say she “went furious” when police arrived, all of which was recorded on body cameras.
After a visit to hospital, she attended a north London police station, where she was initially told she would not be charged, but was given a caution. Three hours later, she called a friend in tears to tell her that she was going to face a criminal charge after all.
Earlier this year, Christine revealed that the Independent Office for Police Conduct urged the Metropolitan Police to reopen its investigation into her beloved daughter’s case.
The watchdog recommended interviewing an officer who was present at the time of Caroline’s arrest. He was said to have been involved in the move to overturn the CPS’s decision to issue him a caution.
After the incident, Burton refused to make a statement to the police, hoping that 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 because she anticipated a court appearance and details being 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 explore is whether she was being used as a leading example of domestic violence against men.
I’m told the documentary will give Christine the opportunity to tell the world that her daughter’s death was not as simple as perhaps the public thinks, while also focusing on her legacy.
“Caroline’s friends want her to rest in peace,” says a friend. “And the truth can help her loved ones accept that she is no longer with us.”