Caroline Flack was considering new life in Ibiza
Caroline Flack was considering starting a new life in Ibiza before she died, her mother has revealed.
Caroline Flack was considering starting a new life in Ibiza before she died.
The former Love Island presenter took her own life in February 2020, months after being charged with assaulting her then-boyfriend Lewis Burton and though she had been very low after her arrest, her mum Christine Flack was pleased to see some bright spots around Christmas time.
Christine told The Guardian newspaper: “We spoke every day and if she didn’t see me, she saw [her twin] Jody.
“She had good friends that she trusted. On Christmas Day, she came home and she wanted to play games and do things, it was just lovely.
“At one point, she said, ‘I think I’m just going to live in Ibiza’ which is a place she loved.
“I wish she had! One day she’d feel as if she could cope, then the next, something else would happen.
"There is always a way forward. I want everyone to know that.”
Christine recalled feeling "pleased" when the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed just weeks after her daughter's death.
She said: “Covid came a month later and I do remember that I was pleased for lockdown.
“You lose someone, the whole world keeps going and you see all the things that Caroline should be doing. I loved lockdown because everything stopped.”
Christine always slept with her phone next to her because she feared a call from Caroline, having grown up with her experiencing frequent "highs and lows".
She said: “It would ring and you’d know in a second whether it was going to be something fun, a ‘Mum! Guess what?’, or if you needed to get in your car and go to her....
“As a little girl, she really had highs and lows. She’d either be really laughing or really crying. I had to collect her from school a few times when they couldn’t stop the crying – but that was her and that continued.”
Despite her success, the former X Factor host suffered dark moments, which she kept private, including stints in hospital, and doctors suggested she could have bipolar disorder, though a formal diagnosis was never given.
Christine said: “Her work was her main coping mechanism.
“She was really ashamed. She didn’t want to be known for that.”
Although Christine questions how things could have been different when she's feeling "low", she tries to focus on the good times with her daughter.
She said: “At home, I’ve got so much of her stuff but it’s not depressing.
“I’ve got her glitterball from Strictly on a shelf, her awards, her front pages and covers. Jody has a room full of Caroline’s things, her scripts, her shows. Someone gave us a beautiful portrait they’d painted of Caroline in a shoot she’d done with syrup running down her head.
“My memories now are usually fun, because that’s what Caroline was like in our life. When she walked into a room, she could change everything, she could lift the day.”
