Caroline Flack: a hopeless romantic who never found true love

Caroline Flack took on the mantle of Cilla Black as Britain’s favourite matchmaker yet she was never able to find true happiness for herself. While Cilla relied on a sliding screen, puns and homespun contestants to dominate TV in the 1980s and 1990s with Blind Date, Caroline’s show – Love Island – was much more sexually charged, packed with highly visible wannabes with barely-there bikinis, spray tans and chiselled jaws.

What both Caroline and Cilla had in common was likeability – and millions of TV viewers tuned in.

Caroline Flack took on the mantle of Cilla Black as Britain’s favourite matchmaker yet she was never able to find true happiness. Pictured at the ITV Palooza 2019

On screen, Caroline was funny and mischievous and wore her heart on her sleeve. Off-screen she battled demons, driven in large part by an unfulfilled desire to find love and her looming court case, carrying with it the threat of prison.

She had found success relatively late in life. She did not become a household name until 2014 when she won Strictly Come Dancing, but Love Island propelled her to a different level.

It is perhaps unsurprising therefore that being forced to step aside for the current series of the ITV show – after being charged with beating her boyfriend Lewis Burton – was a hammer blow.

Her love life was complicated and often chaotic, yet she always insisted her search for ‘the one’ would continue.

Caroline Flack and Andrew Brady. The pair got engaged in April 2018 after dating for three months

Caroline Flack and Andrew Brady. The pair got engaged in April 2018 after dating for three months

Caroline Flack and Pasha Kovalev were crowned the winners of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing in 2014

Caroline Flack and Pasha Kovalev were crowned the winners of BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2014

‘Even though I’ve had ups and downs in my love life, I do still adore love,’ she said recently.

Early in her career, Caroline was romantically linked to Prince Harry, although she never confirmed the rumours.

In 2011, she began dating another Harry – Harry Styles, the One Direction singer. She was 32, he was 17 but she laughed off continuous teasing about dating such a young man.

She didn’t share the prevailing view that the relationship would not last and the pair moved in together.

Styles adored her fun-loving personality and lifestyle and she found him utterly handsome. Sadly, the pessimists were right and the relationship fizzled out.

Caroline's boyfriend Lewis Burton leaving Highbury Corner Magistrates Court in December

Caroline’s boyfriend Lewis Burton leaving Highbury Corner Magistrates Court in December

In 2014-15, Caroline dated music manager Jack Street, but his work with chart-topping singer Sam Smith, which took him regularly to Hollywood while she was competing on Strictly, put a strain on the relationship.

They tried to move in together, but their romance ended when Street was rumoured to have grown close to Glee actress Dianna Agron.

Witty Caroline took to social media to write: ‘Fill yourself with GLEE Jack.’ She quickly deleted the message, though it indicates her often impulsive character.

There were always rumours that she and her X Factor co-star Olly Murs had secretly dated, though they both denied it.

Then Andrew Brady came along, a model 12 years her junior, and he soon moved into her London flat where she was found dead yesterday. Their relationship was turbulent, with regular rows. One report said Brady called police after she threatened to commit suicide. Finally, after taking advice from friends, she dumped him.

Next came Lewis Burton, a tennis player turned model, who at 27 was 13 years younger than Caroline. They met last August and she quickly fell in love with him.

Ever optimistic, she moved him into her bachelorette pad on the outskirts of trendy Islington. He remained there until the fateful night of December 12 when police were called in the early hours of the morning after the pair had enjoyed a meal with friends at Soho bar Bob Bob Ricard.

That was their last date and would be the last time they saw each other because, following a 999 call to police by Burton, Caroline was arrested on suspicion of assault.

Subsequent bail conditions meant they were unable to see one another or even communicate personally. Instead they used social media to share their love.

Caroline was extremely close to her family, particularly her twin sister Jodie. They both lived in London and spent much time together. Born and raised in what she described as the ‘middle of nowhere’ in Norfolk, Caroline’s first tilt at showbiz came when she sent a VHS video made on her dad Ian’s camcorder to talent agent John Noel.

She admitted to being ‘that girl’ at school who would persuade teachers to let her perform a dance routine in assembly, recruiting whoever in her music class was best at the keyboard to provide accompaniment.

After leaving school at 16 to attend a dance academy in Cambridge, she moved to London, aged 19, with the aim of acting, dancing or getting her name in lights. She landed a part in a 2001 film called Is Harry On The Boat? and would laugh about her one-scene role that she described as ‘the blonde who snogged Danny Dyer.’

Caroline Flack pictured with Jack Street. The pair dated for 18 months before breaking things off in 2014

Caroline Flack pictured with Jack Street. The pair dated for 18 months before breaking things off in 2014

In her autobiography Storm In A C Cup, she described how, after experiencing several knockbacks, she switched her dream to TV presenting. She recalled landing the role of presenter on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here Now! – a spin-off show supporting the main TV event – as the moment she felt she had ‘made it’ at the age of 30.

She also hosted ITV’s popular X Factor sister series The Xtra Factor in 2014 but after being unceremoniously dropped, the BBC offered her the chance to take part in that year’s series of Strictly Come Dancing.

She won – and her success alongside professional dancer Pasha Kovalev prompted X Factor mogul Simon Cowell to take her back – this time as host of the main show alongside Murs. The partnership only lasted one series – but then came her big break, when she landed Love Island.

Caroline was bubbly but tough as old boots when she needed to be. She rolled with the punches like nobody else I had ever met.

I remember once writing an opinion piece in a former job in 2014 where I was a little too critical about her departure from the Xtra Factor. Just a few weeks later I was having dinner in Soho club the Groucho when she arrived with a friend and carrying bags full of shopping. She sat down at a table opposite me and stuck her middle finger up at me.

She gave me a wink, I went over, we embraced and she said: ‘Don’t worry, Katie. I’m thick-skinned by now. You must know that. I have got no choice.’

To friends she was loyal – she would help anybody if she could. She was a giver, a person who wanted to put a smile on other people’s faces. A perfect example of this came when one of her closest friends celebrated her 40th birthday at the end of 2018.

Caroline had just joined the West End production of Chicago where she played the lead role of Roxie Hart, and had two weeks to get show-ready.

Her friend had long planned her celebrations in Margate and Caroline was gutted that she just couldn’t make it.

The birthday girl and the rest of the party fully understood, knowing Caroline would never miss a party if she didn’t have to.

However, at 11pm that night she turned up out of the blue, exclaiming: ‘I just couldn’t miss it!’

She stayed for two hours before getting a car home.

I last saw her in June at the House Festival at Kenwood House, North London. She was in a joyous mood, knocking back the vast array of drinks available and holding court with a bunch of journalists.

I will for ever remember her laughing – she had a loud giggle, and an equally loud voice.

Unlike many celebrities, she was an open book, she hid nothing from us and that’s why we loved her.

Her friend, the much-loved Love Island contestant Mike Thalassitis, had recently died and her beloved show was under attack, along with ITV. She was asked how she felt about the situation, and whether she thought the programme should be cancelled. She backed it to the hilt, insisting that it was her life.

How tremendously sad it is that perhaps a reason behind her tragic passing is that she was no longer allowed to be a part of it.

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