Caroline Flack Suicide, Death – After a long battle with “fluctuating mental health” that was made worse by the stress of celebrity, Caroline Flack took her own life after learning that she would be prosecuted for allegedly abusing her lover, according to the findings of the coroner who investigated her death. She had been struggling with these issues for quite some time. After a two-day hearing, during which the Metropolitan police were put under pressure to explain the decision to charge the TV presenter with assault, after the Crown Prosecution Service initially wanted to issue her with a caution, the coroner Mary Hassell said: “I find the reason for her taking her own life was she now knew she was being prosecuted for certainty, and she knew she would face the media, press, publicity – she knew it would all come down upon her.”
Hassell stated the following while testifying before the Poplar coroner court in London: “Caroline’s mental health was unstable, and she had experienced difficulties in the past.” She had to deal with the media in a manner that the majority of us don’t, despite the fact that some people may have had the impression that she lived a charmed life. “In spite of the fact that some people may have had the impression that she led a charmed life,” Hassell relayed the following message from Flack’s mother, Chris: “I think you nailed it bang on. We are aware that there are certain things that you are not permitted to say, and while it is up to us to decide whether or not we want to pursue this matter further, we do not. You’re right on.”
Following the conclusion of the inquest, Flack’s mother and her sister, Jody, made a statement in which they expressed their gratitude to the coroner for the wisdom and compassion she displayed during the proceedings. “She treated Caroline with dignity and respect and allowed us to ask questions and finally get answers to things that have been giving us sleepless nights ever since Caroline felt that she had no choice but to take her own life rather than face the humiliation of a show trial.” Chris Flack stated that while she “fully appreciates” that domestic violence needs to always be treated seriously, the claimed attack that involved Chris Flack and her boyfriend, Lewis Burton, was not even close to being considered as such. She continued by saying, “I don’t believe that Caroline was treated as anyone else would have been.”
During the inquest, Mrs. Flack accused the police and the prosecution of “having it in for” her daughter and of treating her unfairly because she was a celebrity. She told a senior police official that “if it had been… an ordinary person, you wouldn’t have prosecuted.” During her testimony at the inquest, Detective Inspector Lauren Bateman denied that she had treated Flack differently because of her celebrity status. She stated: “I was not biased, and I treat everyone the same.” She also stated that “in my opinion, at that point, the case wasn’t suitable for a caution.”
In December of 2019, Burton called 999 and reported that Flack had been “trying to kill him” while he was asleep and that he had a cracked head as a result of being hit with a light. He also claimed that he had been assaulted with a lamp. Flack had already injured themselves by the time the cops got at his apartment in north London. She was sent to the hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, and it was determined that she was fit for interview, according to the inquest.