The Sunday Times Magazine • 11T
here is a bench in a
woodland in Norfolk
that, in springtime, is
surrounded by daffodils.
It is where Christine
Flack goes to feel like
she’s alone with her
daughter, Caroline Flack,
who took her own life on February 15, 2020.
When the Love Island presenter died,
the Metropolitan Police had been pursuing
an assault charge against her in what her
management would call a “show trial”.
She had been chased out of her home by
paparazzi and allegedly dropped by TV
channels, her life the topic of social media
spats, watercooler conversations and radio
panel shows. She was public property.
But up there, among the trees, it is quiet.
“Our beautiful girl”, reads a memorial on
the bench placed there by her family,
“whose tiny feet made such a big imprint
on the world ... Just to have another
moment, another kiss, another smile. One
more chance to hear you laughing or just to
hold you for a while.” Christine, 71, goes
there each week to sit, to think, to talk to
Caroline. On Christmas Day she met
another woman visiting the memorial of her
own daughter who had died in a car crash.
They laughed at the absurdity of it, two
mothers standing in the middle of a wood on
Christmas morning to be near their children.
Caroline Flack was 40 years old when
she died, one of the UK’s most recognisable
TV presenters — the face of Love Island and
The X Factor, and a winner of Strictly Come
Dancing. She always looked as though she
was having great fun, with fabulous outfits,
hot boyfriends and wild mates, brilliant at
being so very alive. But there were also
darker moments that, until the end, were
kept private. On the news of her death
there was a collective outpouring of grief.
#BeKind trended on social media and there
was a mass reckoning with how we
scrutinise female celebrities.
“I think about Carrie always,” Christine
says. “There isn’t any time I don’t think
of her. She was a big part of our lives, she
was the centre. She ...” Christine trails off,
struggling to continue. “It is ironic, but
she did love life. I want to do away with
the negative because that wasn’t her. Thethings written about her just weren’t her.
She wasn’t an abuser.”
On December 12, 2019, Caroline Flack was
at her flat in Islington with her 27-year-old
boyfriend of five months, Lewis Burton, a
former professional tennis player and model.
They had both been drinking. As Burton
slept, according to court reports, Caroline
found texts on his phone about a relationship
with another woman. She said she tapped
him on the legs to wake him up, then on the
head with his phone, in what she called a
“wake-up flick”, which broke the skin and
drew blood. At 5.25am he called 999 and,
according to a police report, allegedly
mouthed “You’re f***ed” to Caroline, who
was known to be terrified of media intrusion.
Caroline smashed a glass candle holder
and cut her wrist with it so badly that she
would need plastic surgery. Eight minutes
later she opened the door to the police,
covered in blood and without clothes on,
“like a horror movie”, according to one
officer. She was taken to hospital, where she
was treated, then to Holborn police station,
where Christine says she was held in
custody for 24 hours on suspicion of assault.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
initially ruled that she should be released
with a caution. Caroline had admitted guilt,which is a requirement for a caution. She
told officers: “I hit him [Burton], he was
cheating on me. I whacked him round the
head ... There is no excuse for it, I was just
upset. I admit I did it.” She claimed there
was no intent of violence behind the injury.
Hours later, Caroline still in a cell,
Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman
appealed the CPS’s decision. “It was unclear
what she was admitting to and what she
was saying happened,” Bateman said at the
inquest into Caroline’s death. She had
admitted to an accident, but not an assault,
and the Met believed Caroline had not
shown sufficient remorse. For that reason,
the caution was dismissed and she was
charged. However, Burton did not support
the prosecution, withdrawing his complaint
and calling the case a “witch hunt”. At the
inquest, the coroner suggested Bateman
was “splitting hairs” in what she considered
to be an admission of guilt. Bateman
replied: “In my view, it wasn’t a clear
admission of what had happened.”
Caroline’s biggest fear, Christine says,
was the bodycam footage from when the
police arrived at her flat being shown if it
went to court. “Carrie knew she was going
mad, she’d cut herself. She was so fearful
because nobody knew she’d self-harmed.Above: Flack began
presenting Love Island in- Far left: she pleaded
not guilty to assaulting Lewis
PREVIOUS PAGES: RUTH TOWELL FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE, COURTESY OF CHRISTINE FLACK. THIS PAGE: THE MEGA AGENCY, REX, @MRLEW Burton, left, in 2019
ISBURTON / INSTAGRAM
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