Revealed: Why Caroline Flack’s mum is now asking painful questions of the 2 mates who had been together with her the evening she died – as mates inform KATIE HIND she was ‘paying’ her ex-boyfriend
Shortly before Caroline Flack took her own life, two of her closest friends rallied round to look after her.
Louise Teasdale and Mollie Grosberg, who’d partied with the Love Island presenter for a number of years, had rushed to her side following her first suicide attempt the day before, on Valentine’s Day, 2020.
Caroline was, it’s fair to say, in a terrible state. The star had just learned her forthcoming trial – for attacking her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, during a row at 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 texted them saying she wanted to kill herself.
An ambulance was called, but Caroline had refused to go to hospital.
The following day, Caroline’s twin sister Jody was due to come and take over but Louise and Mollie left before she arrived. Various accounts say they only went briefly to the shops, others say they were ordered to leave by Caroline.
It gave the star the window she needed and she was found dead in her flat that afternoon. Caroline was only 40.
There are many painful ‘what ifs’ and ‘whys’. What if Louise and Mollie had stayed? What compelled them to leave when she was so fragile? 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 she took her own life in February 2020
And it’s these questions, among others, that will be explored in a new documentary on Disney+ fronted 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 2021 documentary Caroline Flack: Her Life & Death, are working on the programme which will forensically detail her last 24 hours, and try to give some answers as to why she died – and whether her life could have been saved.
Grieving Christine tries to make some sense of the pressures her daughter was under. She is said to no longer be on speaking terms with Louise and Mollie – the last people to see her daughter alive.
A source close to the Flack family says, ‘Christine wants to know what went on 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 she was under and how she was treated.’
Another issue which has upset those who were closest to Caroline is the speed with 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 pair, said to have been friends before Caroline died, are now engaged with a two-year-old son and 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, what’s particularly jarring for Caroline’s friends and family is 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 of this year. ‘Neither Christine or any of Caroline’s family expected Lewis to be single forever,’ a source tells me. ‘Lewis and Lottie’s friendship did upset Caroline while she was with him, so to see them together, is tough.’
Caroline pictured with her mother Christine who has fronted a Disney+ documentary which will detail Caroline’s last 24 hours, and try to give some answers as to why she died
Friends of Caroline’s also claim that she was paying Burton money. While the nature of the payments is not known, one friend points out that she was ‘extremely generous’. Norfolk-born Caroline had battled mental health issues as far back as her teenage years.
She didn’t, however, let it stop her carving out a flourishing showbusiness career which saw her win Strictly in 2014, and go on to host Love Island.
When it came to matters of the heart she wasn’t quite so successful. There were several men: Harry Styles and (briefly) Prince Harry, were the most famous.
There was also music manager Jack Street and a fling with former England rugby star Danny Cipriani, but when she met Lewis Burton, who at 27 was 13 years her junior, she fell for him instantly. From then her life appeared to spiral.
It was in December 2019 that police attended her flat in Islington, North London, after Burton called them to say she’d hit him with a lamp as he was sleeping.
At the time she also slashed her wrists, leaving blood all over her bedroom. Those close to her say that she ‘went ballistic’ when the police arrived – all of which was recorded on bodycams.
After a visit to hospital she attended a North London police station where she was told initially that she wouldn’t be charged but given a caution. Three hours later she called a friend in tears to say that she was to face a criminal charge after all.
Earlier this year, Christine revealed that the Independent Office of Police Conduct has urged the Metropolitan Police to reopen its investigation into the case of her beloved daughter.
The watchdog has 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 overrule the CPS’s decision to issue her with a caution.
Following the incident, Burton had refused to make a statement to the police, in the hope this would lead to the police dropping the charges, but they pressed 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 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 want to explore is whether she was being used as a high-profile example of domestic violence against men.
The documentary, I’m told, will give Christine the chance to be able to tell the world that her daughter’s death was not as straightforward as perhaps the public think – while also focusing on her legacy.
‘Caroline’s friends want her to be able to rest in peace,’ says one friend. ‘And the truth may help her loved ones accept she is no longer with us.’
